Dear Senator Wong

 

Dear Senator Wong,

Every morning, I switch on my computer and find myself reading and viewing images of yet another genocidal massacre committed by the Israeli military against the almost-defenseless  Palestinians in the Gaza strip. The victims, as always, are mostly women and children. Our complicit media dutifully reports that these are “precision” attacks aimed at Hamas “command and control centres”. Quite how Hamas militants are detected  amongst  the tents housing tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians  is never explained. But that seems not to matter. Quite how  a “ precision” attack leaves craters that are ten metres deep and twenty metres wide is not explained. But it doesn’t seem to matter. It’s all the fault of Hamas, and the 41,000 dead, the 100,000  wounded and the many thousands dead under the rubble of their homes are just collateral damage in the so-called war against terror.

It is reported that your rhetoric about Israel’s genocide has become stronger in recent times. What difference does that make on the ground? How many Palestinian lives have been saved by your slightly-more stern language?

None at all, of course, and you know that to be true.

What will  it take for our government to stand up to the Israel lobby and finally take serious action to bring pressure on the Israeli government to cease its onslaught on the Palestinian people? It is long past time for the government to condemn unequivocally the death and destruction committed by the Israelis, and to take all practical steps available, including ending all trade links, to make it abundantly clear that Australia will no longer be complicit in Israeli war crimes. The government should be supporting the rulings of the ICJ and the millions of people in the community, including members of the Jewish community, who are calling for an end to the brutal erasure of Palestinian lives.

Yours sincerely

Mike G.

Valla Beach

Dear Minister Burke

 

                                                                                                            

                                                                                                            13^th September 2024

 

Dear Minister Burke,

 

Please find enclosed an open letter to one of your predecessors, signed by 403           visitors to our local Rural Australians for Refugees market stall. The letter reads:

 

 Dear Minister Giles,
We note with dismay the ever-increasing number of asylum seekers detained on Nauru. We note also that the government plans to spend $604 million in 2024-25 to keep these people out of sight and out of mind. Has the government learned nothing from more than a decade of the appalling mistreatment of asylum seekers?
We call on you to:
 

• Ensure that the detainees’ asylum claims are assessed via a timely and thorough process.
• Ensure that they have access to comprehensive health care.
• Find third countries to resettle them within a strict timeframe.
• Bring to Australia those refugees who have not been resettled within the timeframe, to live in the community with appropriate support, pending their resettlement in third countries.

 

As the new Minister for immigration, we ask you to take urgent action to resolve this unfolding humanitarian disaster. We know from bitter experience that offshore detention does great harm to those indefinitely detained. We surely cannot go on repeating the tragic mistakes of the past.

 

Minister Burke

I look forward to receiving your response in the near future.

Yours sincerely,

 

Mike G, Valla Beach NSW 2448