March on Deputy Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s office
11am Saturday 31 August
Plaza next to Post Office cafe, near Corner Marrickville and Illawarra Rds, Marrickville
Speakers:
Refugee speaker
Hall Greenland (The Greens)
John Gauci (Inner City Teachers Assoc)
Peter Boyle (Socialist Alliance)
Download a poster to advertise the rally
Invite your friends to the Facebook event here
As the election approaches, both major parties remain locked in a race to the bottom on refugees. Marrickville is in the centre of Anthony Albanese’s seat of Grayndler. Albanese declares himself a leader of the ‘hard left’ faction of the ALP, but now as Rudd’s Deputy is fully implicated in the pedalling of Rudd’s inhumane policies including the PNG solution.
Labor has embraced almost all of the old Howard-era policies by reopening offshore detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru. But Tony Abbott is determined to stoop even further. His plan to turn back the boats may prove unworkable, but it means gambling with the lives of asylum seekers. He also plans to re-introduce Temporary Protection Visas, meaning even those found to be refugees would face the prospect of being sent back home again after three years. They would also be denied the right to travel or to bring their families to Australia. All this is enough reason to put the Liberals last on election day.
The return of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister gave some people hope that the worst of Labor’s refugee policies might be abandoned. But Rudd has now signalled that he is quite prepared to “lurch to the right” on refugees despite condemning this in 2010.
The Greens have rightly stood against the bipartisan pressure to support offshore detention and defended refugee rights in parliament. A strong showing for them in the election will be an indication of support for humanitarian policies.
Yet whether Kevin Rudd or Tony Abbott wins the election, it is clear that we will need to continue to campaign for refugee rights, and demand the end of the PNG solution, the closure of Manus Island, Nauru and all the mainland detention centres.
It was grassroots activism under the Howard government that shifted public opinion and forced him to make concessions over his detention regime. A vibrant refugee movement can achieve that again.
