NEVILLE,
In breaking news, Premier Daniel Andrews has just offered the entire state of Victoria as a sanctuary for the 267 people Malcolm Turnbull wants to deport to Nauru.
This act of moral leadership comes just days after churches around Australia boldly offered sanctuary within their walls to these people. A true act of compassion and political defiance.
And State Premiers and churches aren’t the only institutions facing off against the government. Over the last three days, hospitals, doctors and teachers have all stood up against our government, who are still set to deport these people to hell on earth.
This swell of civil defiance is momentous and powerful. But for it to to work, we as community members need to back them up.
This Monday night people in capital cities around Australia will stand for sanctuary and call on the government to not deport 267 people seeking asylum. Our records show you might not live in a capital city, NEVILLE, but you can check here to see if a community led event has been registered in your area, or you can register to hold your own small event with your friends and community.
Hosting an event like this is easy. You can choose to invite as few or as many people as you’d like, and you can bring them together in your lounge room, at the pub or in a local park. All you have to do is come together as a group, perhaps people might like to light a candle or bring signs saying Let Them Stay. As a group, it’s good if you can take a group photo and post them to social media using the #letthemstay hashtag, so the whole nation can see that people are standing for sanctuary all over – not just in capital cities.
It doesn’t need to be a formal event, just people coming together in a show of compassion. You or someone else might like to say a few words.
Can you bring the message to your town, NEVILLE? Click here to find out more about hosting a small event: www.getup.org.au/aust-welcomes-refugees
This Monday is our chance to stand with the courageous faith leaders, doctors, teachers and lawyers who risk personal penalty for standing in the way of heinously immoral government policy by fighting for these people’s protection.
Among them are paediatricians – who are refusing to discharge their young patients, on the grounds that Nauru is so hellish a place to send a child that it would breach their duty of care to do so.
Others are teachers to some of the 50 school-aged children set to be deported – who have reached out to advocates, asking how they too can act to keep their students in their classroom, not dragged back to detention camps.
And in spite of this incredible groundswell of defiance, the government still appears ready to put these vulnerable men, women and kids on planes to hell on earth. A huge series of community events across the country backing in the courageous civil disobedience from our churches, schools and hospitals is our best bet to stop that happening.
Shen, Sally, Aurora and Alycia for the GetUp team
PS – In the lead up to Monday, many are taking to social media to share photos of the word “sanctuary” written with chalk or on a sign at the front of their houses. If you’d like to join this beautiful online movement, share your own photo using the hashtag #letthemstay and explain why you stand for sanctuary. Check out some of the photos below:
GetUp is an independent, not-for-profit community campaigning group. We use new technology to empower Australians to have their say on important national issues. We receive no political party or government funding, and every campaign we run is entirely supported by voluntary donations. If you’d like to contribute to help fund GetUp’s work, please donate now! To unsubscribe from GetUp, please click here. Our team acknowledges that we meet and work on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We wish to pay respect to their Elders – past, present and future – and acknowledge the important role all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to play within Australia and the GetUp community.
Authorised by Paul Oosting, Level 14, 338 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000.
Hi Neville, here is your weekly round-up of the latest news in Australian politics:
