This kit includes 3 proforma
letters and background notes prepared by members of the ARAN Network of Letter
Writing Groups.
Personalised letters are best – and if you can find the time a handwritten letter will grab more attention
5
April is The International Day of Conscience, and 3 years and one month since the family was detained.
Email addresses for MPs and Senators - https://aran.net.au/resources/letter-writing/
You can write to:
1. The Hon Karen Andrews, Minister for Home Affairs.
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
2. Mr Alex Hawke, Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
3. Ken O’Dowd, MP, Federal Member for Flynn (Biloela area)
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
And remember to send a copy of your letters to your local MP and the Prime Minister
Your local MP, either mailing or emailing to their electoral office
Find postal and email addresses for your local members https://www.aph.gov.au/senators_and_members/members
or to them at:
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Prime Minister
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
You may also wish to contact your state Senators.
Mailing address for Senators is:
PO Box 6100
Senate
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Biloela Family Letters and Background information
· You may wish to simply copy and paste the information in the letters below.
· Or you may wish to write your own letter using the background information provided.
Letter 1. The Hon Karen Andrews, Minister for Home Affairs.
The Hon Karen Andrews, Minister for Home Affairs.
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Dear Minister Andrews
I appeal to you to immediately release from detention the Sri Lankan Tamil family, Nades and Priya Murugappan, and the children, Kopika and Tharunicaa, and return them to Biloela.
The Biloela community has campaign strongly for the return of this family back.
For four years, Priya and Nades lived quiet lives in Biloela, a QLD town that needs new families to keep local services running.
Nades was a valued employee at the local meatworks, working hard to provide for his young family. Priya joined church groups and took her curries to doctors at the local hospital.
A single day after Priya’s visa expired in March 2018, Border Force took this family away and put them in detention. The family has been in detention for more than 3 years.
They are currently being held on Christmas Island, 5,000km from Biloela.
Yours sincerely
Letter 2. The Hon Alex Hawke, Minister for Immigration
Mr Alex Hawke, Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Dear Minister for Immigration
I appeal to you to immediately release the Sri Lankan Tamil family from detention, allowing them to return to the community of Biloela, Queensland where they have such strong support.
Australia-wide more than 350,000 people signed a petition calling for their release, and even the AMA issued a powerful statement condemning the family’s prolonged detention, which must be very harmful to their two young children.
Under international human rights law children can only be detained as a last resort, yet this family has spent 3 years in detention, despite posing no security threat to anyone. Not to mention the cynical waste of taxpayers’ money.
Therefore I urge you to grant this innocent family their freedom and permission to return to Biloela permanently.
Yours sincerely
Letter 2. Ken O’Dowd, MP for Flynn (Biloela is in the electorate of Flynn)
Mr Ken O’Dowd, MP, Federal Member for Flynn
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Date
Dear Mr O’Dowd,
I write concerning a family held in Immigration Detention on Christmas Island.
The parents, Nades and Priya Murugappan, and the children, Kopika and Tharunicaa, have now been detained in locked detention by the Immigration Department for more than three years. I understand that they have been detained all this time pending court proceedings regarding their refugee status.
For a number of years, this family was living in Biloela, a town in your electorate of Flynn, where the father was employed at the local meat works.
This family is not a threat to anyone, in fact, I know that many members of the Biloela community have been campaigning since 2018 on their behalf, asking for them to be returned to their home and friends in Queensland.
I also understand that the cost of detaining this little Tamil family of four is somewhere in the order of $6million.
This family should be immediately released from detention and returned to Biloela.
I ask that you appeal to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, himself the father of two daughters, and Alex Hawke, the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs, the father of four children, and ask them to use their discretionary power to release this family, and allow them to settle permanently in Biloela, so they can live a safe and productive life.
Yours sincerely,
Background Information for Biloela Family Letter-Blitz
Choose 2 or 3 dot points to use in your letter.
Paraphrase using your own words.
· This family represents no security threat to the community. There is no justification for keeping them locked up.
· This family have a home in Biloela – they have been an integral part of the Biloela community and the community want them back. The community has been fighting for their release for three years.
· There is strong public support for the release of this family. It is a matter of significant public interest when their home town community has been consistently calling for their release and return, and when more than 350,000 Australians have signed a petition calling for their release. The Australian community does not support the ongoing detention of this family.
· The family has now been in detention for more than 1,000 days. The two children have spent a large part of their life in detention. Ongoing detention is very traumatising and harmful to children. There is very clear medical evidence that when children are subjected to psychological trauma of this kind, that it will be detrimental to their psychological development and will have serious mental health consequences that will be lifelong
· Children should only be held in detention when absolutely necessary and, even then, only for the shortest possible period of time. The continuing detention of these children is a total abrogation of the Minister’s duty and is tantamount to child abuse.
· The electorate will judge Minister Hawke, Minister Dutton, Prime Minister Morrison and the Coalition Government very harshly for this deliberately cruel treatment of this family.
· Detaining the Biloela family on Christmas Island is an extraordinary and cynical waste of taxpayers’ money
Key requests (one of)
· This family should be released immediately into the community – and allowed to return to the town of Biloela where they are loved and wanted and very much part of the community
· They should be released into the community and allowed to return to Biloela while their application for protection runs its course
· This family should be released from detention, allowed to return to their home in Biloela and allowed to remain permanently in Australia
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