Newsletter for 12 March 2019 Rural Australians for Refugees Bellingen and Nambucca Districts

_{Roadside demonstration report}

_{Bellingen Market: Saturday 16}^th _March

_{Harmony festival. Coffs Harbour: Sunday 31}^st _March

_{The Prime Minister visits Christmas Island.}

_{Fundraising lunch on 31}^st _{March: SOLD OUT!!}

_{Roadside demonstration report}

_{Sadly, we had to cancel last Thursday’s demonstration due to the wet weather. However, in order to avoid disappointing our Bellingen supporters, our next roadside demonstration will be in Bellingen, weather permitting. We will be in our usual spot on Waterfall Way, adjacent to the Yellow Shed, on Thursday 21}^st _{March from 2.30 to 4.00 pm. Please join us if you can.}

_{Bellingen Market: Saturday 16}^th _March

_{Our next market stall will be at Bellingen market on Saturday from 9.00 am until 1.30 pm. We will be talking to market-goers, handing out leaflets and encouraging people to sign our open letter to Minister Dutton. If you are able to help out for an hour or two, then please let Mike know by emailing him at: mandm.griffin2@bigpond.com. The markets present a great opportunity for supporters to get together for a chat and for us to get our message across about the urgent need to end the cruel and completely unnecessary policy of indefinite detention.}

_{Harmony festival. Coffs Harbour: Sunday 31}^st _March

_{The annual Harmony Festival will take place in the Coffs Harbour Botanic Gardens on Sunday 31}^st _{March from 9.00 am to 2.30 pm. The festival is a wonderful and colourful celebration of multicultural Coffs Harbour. You will enjoy singing and dancing, beautiful costumes, and enticing food from around the world. From past experience, it will be a truly joyful experience not to be missed. Please put the date in your diary so that you can look forward to enjoying the occasion.}

_{The Prime Minister visits Christmas Island.}

_{Last week, with great fanfare, the Prime Minister, together with an entourage of reporters and people in uniform, toured the empty Christmas Island detention centre – a visit which is reported to have cost Australian taxpayers some $60,000. The government is planning to spend $1.4 billion in the next four years to run this prison, and is currently recruiting medical staff to deal with the transfer of sick people from Manus and Nauru.} 

_{By transferring people to Christmas Island, the government expects to be able to avoid the intervention of lawyers, who have been successful in defending the rights of refugees to remain in Australia once brought here for treatment.} 

_{The terrible reality of this policy means that refugees transferred to Christmas Island will either remain there indefinitely or will be obliged to return to Manus or Nauru. But our PM outrageously asserts that these people, who have the right to our protection, are “gaming the system” and that if they remain imprisoned on Christmas Island indefinitely, then that will be “their own choice.”}

_{Jane Favero, of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, had this to say: “If people are still going to be on Christmas Island in four years, that would be ten years of deprivation of liberty and freedom for people who have asserted their right to seek asylum in Australia. It’s unfathomable to think that this would happen, but I don’t underestimate what the current government could do.”}

_{Part of the enormous $300 million-plus a year budget includes the cost of hiring 72 clinical staff, the purpose of which is to prevent at all costs the transfer of sick people to mainland Australia.} 

_{A huge amount of money to pursue a purely political objective.}

_{Fundraising lunch on 31}^st _{March: SOLD OUT!!}

_{Amazingly, the 36 places available for the upcoming fundraiser at Margie and Georgie’s house in Mylestom have all been snapped up! However, we are very keen to receive items for the auction. If you have an item that you think will sell for at least $20, then could you please let M and G know by emailing them at:  gsmh@fastmail.fm. Collection can be arranged if necessary. It is important for us to have the details of all the items for the auction so that we can produce a catalogue a couple of days before the event. Our hope is to have at least 30 items to put under the hammer. We already have some exciting items lined up, so watch this space!} 

_{Check out the index of subjects on our blog http://bellorar.blogspot.com.au}

_{It includes articles from many sources and letters to politicians and newspapers.}

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_{The National RAR web site is at  www.ruralaustraliansforrefugees.org.au} 

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