Newsletter for 25th June 2019 RAR Bello and Nambucca

Coffs Harbourside market report

Roadside Demonstration: Thursday 27^th June, opposite the

Base Hospital, Coffs Harbour

National RAR Annual General Meeting: Saturday 27^th July,

5.00 pm in Queanbeyan

The UNHCR Global Trends Report

The Medivac Legislation

Coffs Harbourside market report

We had a hugely successful market in Coffs Harbour on Sunday. Mercifully, the rain that had been forecast didn’t materialise, and we had a really busy morning talking to people, handing out leaflets and collecting signatures on our open letter to the Prime Minister, in which we urge him to accept the New Zealand government’s offer to resettle 150 refugees annually from Manus and Nauru. Our wonderful team of supporters did a great job in collecting more than 200 signatures on the open letter, and we received many appreciative comments from market-goers for the work that we do to bring the reality of offshore detention to the public’s attention.

Our next market stall will be at the Bellingen Market on Saturday 20^th July. Please put the date in your diary.

Roadside Demonstration: Thursday 27^th June, opposite the

Base Hospital, Coffs Harbour

A reminder that our next roadside demonstration is scheduled for this Thursday from 2.30 pm to 4.00 pm. You will find us by the side of the Pacific Highway in Coffs Harbour, opposite the Base hospital. Please join us if you can, and help us to build on the momentum created by our record turnout for our recent demo at the Big Banana. We have lots of banners and placards to share.

National RAR Annual General Meeting: Saturday 27^th July, 5.00 pm in Queanbeyan

This year’s AGM will take place at the Uniting Church, Queanbeyan, commencing at 5.00 pm, followed by guest speakers and Annual Dinner. If you wish to attend, Queanbeyan RAR members can offer billets. Alternatively, you can participate in the AGM remotely, using ZOOM. For billet enquiries, contact Anne at: anne.gardner9@gmail.com. For dinner bookings, contact Carolyn at: cbr23154@bigpond.com. For further information, including about using ZOOM, or nominating for a committee position, contact: rar.australia@gmail.com or phone 0417398528.

The UNHCR Global Trends Report

Last week, to coincide with Refugee Week, The United Nations High Commission for Refugees published its annual Global Trends report, a comprehensive update on the global situation for displaced people, refugees and asylum seekers. The report includes “eight refugee facts that you need to know”. They are:

• CHILDREN: In 2018, every second refugee was a child, many (110,000) alone and without their families.
  
  
• TODDLERS: Uganda reported 2,800 children aged five or below alone or separated from their families.
  
  
• URBAN PHENOMENON: As a refugee, you are more likely to live in a town or city (61%) than in a rural area or camp.
  
  
• RICH AND POOR: High income countries on average host 2.7 refugees per 1000 of population. Middle and low-income countries on average host 5.8. The poorest countries host one third of all refugees worldwide.
  
  
• WHEREABOUTS: About 80% of refugees live in countries neighbouring their countries of origin.
  
  
• DURATION: Nearly four in every five refugees are in displacement situations that have lasted for at least five years. One in five have been in displacement situations that have lasted twenty years or more.
  
  
• NEW ASYLUM SEEKERS: The greatest number of new asylum applications in 2018 was from Venezuelans (341,800).
  
  
• LIKELIHOOD: The proportion of humanity who are refugees, asylum seekers, or internally displaced is now 1-in-108. Ten years ago, it was 1-in-160. 
   

The Medivac Legislation

The government is clearly determined to repeal the Medivac

legislation, which was passed late last year. The legislation was designed to ensure that medical practitioners, rather than bureaucrats, should make recommendations about the evacuation of individual detainees on Manus and Nauru to receive treatment in Australia. The legislation stipulates that the government retains the power to reject transfers on security or character grounds. Minister Dutton has now mounted a crude scare campaign to persuade the opposition and the cross bench in the Senate to overthrow the legislation. Yet again, he has resorted to his familiar tactics: the floodgates are about to be opened, the people smugglers are lining up to restart their trade, hundreds of detainees will be brought to Australia under the new legislation, we will be accepting rapists, paedophiles, and hardened criminals. Dutton appeared on Sky news last week, and suggested that women who had been victims of rape on Nauru were “trying it on” by deciding, on arrival in Australia, to continue with their pregnancy. He offered no evidence to support his claim. His remarks have, quite properly, enraged the people involved in supporting these women. Lawyers who have acted for multiple rape victims on Nauru say that this applied to none of their clients. George Newhouse, principal solicitor at the National Justice Project, stated: “I know of cases where women were raped under his watch and needed termination, and the fact that he’s using them as political cannon-fodder is an absolute disgrace.”

Minister Dutton’s claims just keep coming, as he becomes increasingly outraged at the dire threats to our future. He is particularly incensed that the Federal Court has ruled that it is in order for two doctors to review a patient’s case notes, rather than have direct contact with the individual, when making a recommendation for a medical transfer, in spite of the fact that it is normal medical practice to do so. Doctors involved in the assessment process are described by minister Dutton as “activists” rather as medical practitioners. To emphasise his point, he suggests that to “two activist doctors from Nimbin” can make the decision to request a transfer!!

Unsurprisingly, none of the above is true. Dr Kerryn Phelps, who, as an MP, steered the legislation through parliament, states: “There are not floodgate to open. There has been a very careful, measured and professional process put in place to assess people for transfer and that’s why it took a while for the transfers to begin, because it was very important for the processes to be medically robust.” She goes on to say: “It is outrageous that Mr. Dutton should come out swinging on this law, and try to deny people the care they need, on World Refugee Day. And to denigrate the motives and reputations of the doctors who are giving their time for a humanitarian cause is unconscionable. These doctors are acting out of compassion in the interests of human rights and the obligations of the medical profession.” 

 

Senator Stirling Griff, who supported the Medivac bill in the Senate, is incensed at Mr. Dutton’s portrayal of the legislation, accusing the minister of an “outright lie” in his comments about the new law. The facts are that the government has approved 31 transfers (not hundreds) over the past four months. The expert medical panel has been called on just 9 times to review the transfers recommended by doctors. The panel cleared two of these cases for transfer and backed the government on the other seven. One has to conclude, therefore, that the system is working as envisaged in the legislation. Of the 31 refugees involved, 22 have arrived in Australia for treatment. Minister Dutton would clearly prefer the number to be zero, and for people to remain on Manus and Nauru with their serious medical conditions, which have been brought on by the cruel system of indefinite detention, a system designed by government to break people’s spirits.

Please consider contacting your local MP, who for most of us is Pat Conaghan, and urge them NOT to support the repeal of the Medivac legislation. The legislation is operating as planned, presents no threat to our security, will not “open the floodgates”, and is a measured and humane response to dealing with medical needs which cannot be met on Nauru or Manus. The only way to make these people healthy again is to evacuate them all urgently, rather than a few at a time as they become more and more unwell.

Pat Conaghan’s contact details: 02 6277 4446 (parliament); 02 6652 6233 (Cowper office). Email: pat.conaghan.mp@aph.gov.au.

The vote of newly-elected Jacqui Lambie to the Senate will be vital when the matter comes before parliament. At the time of writing, the list of members of the Senate has not been updated to reflect the changes to membership. We will hopefully be in a position to share her details with you in next week’s newsletter.

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