Rural Australians for Refugees Bellingen and Nambucca Districts

This blog has been set up to further the cause of compassion for Asylum Seekers. We will post letters that have been sent to politicians, building up the pressure to provide compassionate support to all refugees in Australia and anywhere where people have been sent by the Australian Government. Send your letter and any reply to our email address and we will post it on the site. Any other information of use will also be posted. For Facebook page click on "contact us" tab below.

30.4.19

Newsletter for 30 April 2019 Rural Australians for Refugees Bellingen and Nambucca Districts

_{Election vigil report}

_{Rally for refugees and asylum seekers. Saturday 11}^th_{May.
11.00 until 12.00 pm}

_{Funding our election advert}

_{Meet the Candidates Forums}

_{Election vigil report}

_{A good turn- out for the first of our election vigils
on Friday in Coffs Harbour, and we made quite an impact with our new banner and
placards. Lots of support, as always, from passing motorists, but it is fair to
say that the Nationals’ staffers were less than pleased about our presence. One
of them spent some time taking photos of each of us with our banners and
placards! We politely explained who we were, why we were there, and that we
were exercising our democratic right to protest.}

_{Given that neither Labor nor the Greens have an
election office, and that Rob Oakeshott seems to be committed to ending
offshore detention, we agreed to return to the same location next Friday,
3}^rd_{May from 11.00 am until
midday.}

_{Location: 75, Grafton Street, (Pacific Highway),
opposite Jax Tyres, between Park Street and Harbour Drive.}

_{Some of last Friday’s supporters will be away this
week, so we would like to appeal to others to join us and show solidarity for
asylum seekers and refugees. Please come along if you can.}

_{Rally for refugees and asylum seekers. Saturday 11}^th_{May.
11.00 until 12.00 pm}

_{We have decided not to hold a vigil on Friday 10}^th_{May.
Instead, we are planning to hold a rally in a location yet to be decided. We’ve
just been informed that we can’t hold a rally in Coffs Harbour City Square,
which we were hoping to do.We hope that, by choosing a Saturday, lots of people
who ordinarily can’t make our weekday events will be able to attend. This will
be the final opportunity before the federal election to appeal to the public to
show some compassion for refugees and asylum seekers. On the last occasion that
we assembled in the city square on a Saturday, more than 70 people
participated.}

_{Will you
please consider joining us, together with your friends and families on 11}^th_{May?
We’ll let you know about the location in next week’s newsletter. Let’s make
this a big one!}

_{Funding our election advert}

_{Since last week’s newsletter was published, we have
received six pledges of support amounting to $550, which is a terrific start. A
big thank you to those who have pledged their support. We have decided to go
ahead with the advert, in the form of an open letter to the electors of Cowper,
which will cost about $970. Please look out for our half-page advert in
Saturday’s Coffs Advocate. We are hoping that supporters will help us to bridge
the funding gap by making a donation, however large or small. If you
are able to help to pay for the advert, then please make a payment into our BCU
RAR account. The details are as follows:}

_{Account name: RAR Bellingen and Nambucca}

_{BSB: 533000}

_{Account number: 238205}

_{Please mark your contribution as “advert”.}

_{If by chance we raise more than we need to cover the
cost of the advert, any surplus will be}

_{donated to the Asylum Seekers Centre in
Newtown.}

_{Meet the Candidates Forums}

_{A reminder that there is a Meet the Candidates Forum,
hosted by the Coffs Coast Climate Action Group this evening, Tuesday 30}^th_{April
from 7.00 pm to 9.00 pm at C Ex Coffs, which is located at 2-6, Vernon Street,
Coffs Harbour.}_{We have just learned that the Nationals candidate,
Patrick Conaghan, will not be in attendance, which is really disappointing.
Given that he will not be in attendance, and that the focus of the evening will
be very much on climate change, then we believe that it would be better to
focus our energies on the second forum, to be held in Belllingen. The details
for this forum are as follows:}

_{Meet the Candidates Forum: Tuesday 7}^th_{May from
5.00 pm to 7.00 pm. It will be hosted by the Bellingen Chamber of Commerce and
will be held in the Bellingen}_{Memorial Hall, which is
located at 35, Hyde Street, Bellingen. We have had a helpful exchange of
correspondence with the President of the Chamber, Libby Park. The format for
the meeting is that the facilitators will ask one structured question for each
key topic -which will include asylum and refugee policy- and then open up
discussion for members of the audience to engage in discussion with the
candidates to explore their positions further. Libby concludes: “Your members
who attend the event should be prepared to pose additional questions to develop
this discussion further. It is a very important topic.”}

_{Please make every effort to attend this forum if you
can, and be ready to get involved in the discussion.}

_{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.}

_{This newsletter is sent to >620 recipients}

_{Our Face book is at}_{https://www.facebook.com/Rural-Australians-for-Refugees-Bellingen-and-Nambucca-Districts-269696303205083/timeline/}

_{(579 likes)}

_{Twitter Account @RARBellingenNam}

_{Email address}_{bellingen.rar@gmail.com}

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

_{The National RAR facebook site is at}_{RAR Facebook}

23.4.19

Newsletter for 23 April 2019 Rural Australians for Refugees Bellingen and Nambucca Districts

_{Roadside demonstration report}

_{Coffs Harbourside market report}

_{Our federal election strategy}

_{Donation to the Asylum Seekers Centre}

_{Roadside demonstration report}

_{We had a great turnout of twelve supporters for our
demonstration last Thursday. Our three large banners and lots of placards made
a huge splash and attracted overwhelming support from passing motorists. We all
agreed that the demonstration was a great success, and we did wonder what our
parliamentary candidates would have made of it all if they had been present,
given that some of them continue to insist that maintaining a hard line on
offshore detention is a vote winner.}

_{Considering that the average age of our group of 12
was at least 70, and that one of our supporters was celebrating her 85}^th_{birthday,
we were a bit miffed when a passing ute driver shouted that we should “get a
job”!}

_{Coffs Harbourside market report}

_{The sun finally shone for us at the Harbourside market
on Sunday, and we had a very busy time talking to lots of market-goers, who
turned up in large numbers. We sold merchandise, collected 120 signatures on
our open letter to Minister Dutton, and received generous donations for the
Asylum Seekers Centre in Newtown. Our conclusion, as the federal election
approaches, is that people are increasingly aware of, and deeply unhappy about,
the reality and cruelty of offshore detention. The policy is seen as both
unnecessary and indefensible, and should end immediately. As one market-goer
put it: “This is our Guantanamo Bay. These people are political prisoners.”}

_{A big thank you to our great RAR team for their hard
work, and to Kim and her market crew for their support.}

_{We will not be at the Bellingen market on 18}^th_{May, as
it is election day. Our next market stall will be at the Valla Beach market
on Saturday 1}^st_{June from 9.00 am until
1.00 pm.}

_{Our federal election strategy}

_{A group of us met recently to discuss how to maximise
the opportunity presented by the election to bring our campaign for the humane
treatment of asylum seekers and refugees to the attention of both the public
and the candidates. So far, we have come up with the following:}

_{We have
sent the attached questions to the federal candidates, and asked them to
respond in a timely manner, so that we can publish their responses before
the election.}
_{We will
hold one-hour vigils, with our banners and placards, outside the offices
of those candidates who have an office on three Fridays before the
election from 11.00 am until midday. The first of the vigils will
be this Friday, 26}^th_{April
outside the office of the Nationals candidate, Patrick Conaghan in Coffs
Harbour. The office is located at 75, Grafton Street (the Pacific
Highway), opposite Jax Tyres, between Park Avenue and}_{Harbour
Drive. Please join us if you can. We’ll have lots of banners and
placards to share.}

_{The venues for Friday 3}^rd_{and
Friday 10}^th_{May will be published in next week’s newsletter.}

_{We will encourage our
RAR supporters to attend the various candidates’ forums and to ask
questions about refugee and asylum policy. So far, we have information
about two forums. The first one is hosted by the Coffs Coast
Climate Action Group and will take place on Tuesday 30}^th_{April
from 7.00 pm - 9.00 pm at C Ex Coffs, which is located at 2-6, Vernon
Street, Coffs Harbour}_{. The second one is hosted by the
Bellingen Chamber of Commerce, and will take place on Tuesday 7}^th_{May
from 5.00 pm – 7.00 pm at the Bellingen Memorial Hall, which is located at
35, Hyde Street, Bellingen.}
_{Please
try to get along to one of the forums if you can.}

_{We are
investigating the possibility of taking out a half-page advertisement in the
Coffs Advocate to promote our RAR objectives and to encourage people to
consider the plight of refugees and asylum seekers on Manus and Nauru, and in
our communities, as the election approaches. It will be quite expensive, and we
can only do it if enough of our RAR supporters back the idea and help to fund
it. We already have some pledges of support. Please let us know what you think
by emailing Mike at: mandm.griffin2@bigpond.com.}

_{We are also considering the idea of turning up with
our banners and placards at the candidates’ forums, so that people will be
aware of our campaign as they arrive for the meetings. Please let us know if
you think that this is a good idea.}

_{Finally, if you have any suggestions for further
actions during the election campaign, please get in touch with us.}