Convergence on Canberra

Join refugee groups from around Australia to travel to Canberra on Monday 18 November to protest during the first sitting period of the new Abbott government.

Monday 18 November, buses leave Sydney 7.30am


The Coalition government have made asylum seekers and refugees their first target. During their first sitting of parliament, refugee supporters from Sydney will join a convergence of activists outside to show them it won’t be tolerated. Be one of them!

Day includes:
11am encirclement of Parliament
1pm rally at Parliament

You can travel independently, or get on the bus with us.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
– Buses leave Sydney from the corner of Eddy Avenue and Pitt St, Sydney, near Central station at 7:30am sharp on Monday the 18th of November
– Buses will depart from parliament house in Canberra at 4:15pm, returning to Eddy Avenue at approximately 7:15pm

We suggest you bring food, water, sunscreen and a message for Tony Abbott and his friends.

Cost:
$20 return
$35 return + donation
(Donations will be a great help for us. This way we can provide free tickets for asylum seekers, cover the cost if we have empty seats on the bus, and
keep our campaign work going)

YOU MUST PRE-BOOK YOUR BUS TICKET AT THIS LINK

http://bit.ly/GYvu4J

Contact Amy on 0430 554 263 or refugeeactionsyd@gmail.com for more info

Print out a poster or leaflet to help advertise the event

Poster black and white Poster in colour (with authorisation)

A5 leaflet black and white and leaflet in colour (with authorisation)

WHY PROTEST?

Tony Abbott, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison and the rest of the Coalition want to use their time in parliament to attack refugee rights. It can’t be tolerated.

They began their attacks on day one. On his first day as PM Abbott re-introduced Temporary Protection Visas, meaning that refugees have the prospect of being sent back when their visa expires after three years. TPV holders will not have access to even basic settlement supports such as English language lessons and will be denied the right to travel or to bring family members to Australia. Under the Howard government this policy was shown to exacerbate post traumatic stress and mental illness in huge numbers of refugees who ultimately ended up settling in Australia.

This will apply not only to those who arrive after the recent election, but to the 30,000 asylum seekers that arrived under Labor’s “no advantage” rule.

The government will also cut off legal assistance for asylum seekers and hopes to restrict court appeals.

Abbott has appointed three-star General Angus Campbell to run his “Operation Sovereign Borders” with a promise to turn back asylum boats, despite the fact that neither the Indonesian government nor the Australian navy want to implement such a policy.

Morrison has announced plans to imprison an extra 2000 asylum seekers on Nauru and a further 1230 on Manus Island.

But their “solutions” are already in trouble. As well as Indonesia’s opposition to turning back the boats, the huge expansion of offshore processing will be almost impossible to implement. The Nauru and Manus detention centres are in crisis, with constant protests, riots, and an epidemic of self-harm. Papua New Guinea has no plans to resettle asylum seekers.

The new governments’ attempts to “hide the boats” by restricting information about boat arrivals shows they are not confident in their own policies. If we mobilise against them and their anti-refugee lies down from underneath.

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