Protest outside Luke Hartsuykers office 27 November 2015

Report on last protest of the year in front of Luke Hartsuykers Office

Great turn out for our last protest of the year in front of Luke Hartsuyker's office. We are taking a break to regroup for next year and will let you all know our plans soon. Unfortunately the asylum seekers illegally detained on Manus, Nauru and Christmas Islands are not so fortunate so please keep up the letters to our MP's and newspapers and keep the pressure on..Thanks to Kim and the crew at the Happy Frog for your continued support...more power to the good people in our community!!

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Flying pickets

Flying Pickets

    

I am trying to get together a group of people willing to participate in flying pickets at local events to protest about how our country is being governed, whether locally or nationally. What we would need are people to participate and people to provide the information as to what is happening, for instance Luke Hartsuyker on a charity bike ride, getting TV and photo coverage.

   

My idea would be a contact list for people and those able and willing to participate just turn up. Our protests should be themed so as to be clear and not everyone would want to put their energy into each event, we all have different priorities. I do not wish us to be couched within a political party or lobby group, as I feel it would be too constraining and might interfere with their messages too.

So if this approach appeals to you please contact me by email; robinhesketh@hotmail.com  or phone 6655 9254 and we can go from there

Monthly Picket outside Luke Hartsuyker's office 24 September 2015

Report from Green's MNC

"On the subject of refugees....Yesterday Richard, Craig and Craig's kids from Coffs Greens joined the rally organised by https://www.facebook.com/Rural-Australians-for-Refugees-…/…/ outside Luke Hartsukyer's office in Coffs Harbour. Just like our new PM we are concerned about the conditions these desperate and vulnerable men, women and children find themselves in Australian detention centres - unlike Mr Turnbull we want something to be done about it! 

Greens and many others in our community agree - The time has come to close down these expensive and cruel offshore 'deterrent' detention camps on Nauru and Manus!

During the one and half hour rally people came and went, however It was good to meet others who understand the need and urgency to end this horrible current policy. The media came along and John Pollock spoke about the on-going monthly rally, RAR and the need to continue to raise awareness and provide facts often lacking when discussing asylum seekers. Craig highlighted the Greens stance on returning the humane processing of asylum seekers to Australia. This is both compassionate and a less costly option. It really is quite shocking that there are children already traumatised - as young as my own kids - that are now treated so terribly by our government… surely this is un-Australian!"

Picket at Luke Hartsuyker's Office

Weekly picket out side Luke Hartsuyker's office

check out picket in the "index" tab at the head of the blog

Inaugural picket iutside Luke Hartsuyker's Office 16 July 2015

Inaugural Thursday Picket of Luke Hartsuker MP's office  Thursday 16 July  

The picket will kick off between 10 am and noon this coming Thursday the 16th of July. Bring a placard supporting the rights of asylum seekers as we seek to keep the pressure up on the government over this horrendous policy. Luke's office is at 39 Little St Coffs Harbour. We hope to make this a weekly event. Coffs Growers market is on at the same time so give our MP a message and then go an support our local producers.

Background

 Our local member of Parliament continues to uncritically support the indefinite detention of asylum seekers on Manus and Nauru. He is a senior member of a government which seeks to shroud its asylum policy activities in secrecy and which now threatens doctors, nurses and other support workers with imprisonment if they speak out about the abuses which they observe in these gulags. It’s time to let Mr Hartsuyker know that we are enraged by his government’s actions and that we will continue to make our feelings known. 

To that end, we are planning a new action, namely to hold a peaceful picket outside the office of our Federal Member each Thursday morning, provided that there is support amongst our membership to get the idea off the ground. 

One of our supporters, Robin Hesketh, is very keen to organise the picket and is looking for support. If anyone can make a commitment for a couple of hours on a Thursday morning to support this action, then please email Robin at : robinhesketh@hotmail.com. You might want to commit to just one session a month, or whatever you feel that you can manage. If a number of people are prepared to do a little, then it can add up to something significant. On behalf of asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus,  please support Robin if you can.