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}