16 March 2022
Dear <<First Name>>
Join us for our next online meeting on Wednesday 23 March @ 6.30pm
A reminder email with the link will be sent to you on the day of our meeting.
The Minutes of our last meeting can be read at L4RNSWMinutes23Feb22
Priorities for a Labor Government
At our last meeting, members discussed at length, the refugee policies that we believe Labor should implement when it forms government. We felt it was important to be well prepared and it was suggested that we prioritise those policies that should be implemented immediately, to those that can be implemented say within 12 months. A sub-committee was formed and will be reporting its first draft to members at our March meeting.
If you wish to access the details of the discussion that took place at our last meeting about what members thought we should include, they can be found in the minutes of our February meeting using the aforementioned link.
Please join us and have your say about what issues are important to you.
Refugee rally
Join L4R at the refugee rally organised for this coming Sunday 20 March at the Sydney Town Hall commencing at 2pm. L4R has endorsed this rally. Please look out for our banner. The flyer with the details follows RefugeeRally20 Mar 22
Scott Morrison still wants to play border politics to distract from his failures over COVID. The cancellation of Novak Djokavic’s visa gave renewed attention to the “god-like powers” of the Immigration Minister. There are still a number of Medevac refugees in detention across the country, including those in the hotel, almost nine years after they were first sent to offshore detention. Another 200 are still languishing in PNG or Nauru.
Another 30,000 are living in the community on temporary visas, including those recognised as refugees on Temporary Protection Visas or SHEVs. They all face the prospect of being forced to return home to danger, and they are unable to bring family members to join them, even for those found to be refugees. The Murugappan family, too, are still unable to return to Biloela and have no certainty about their future.
The government has also left thousands of interpreters and family members of Afghan-Australians stranded in Afghanistan, allocating a pathetic 15,000 visas over four years, without raising the overall refugee intake.
This protest will be part of a global day of action against racism and for refugees—to mark the UN day for the elimination of racial discrimination.
Palm Sunday Rally
L4R has endorsed the Palm Sunday rally for Peace and Refugees for 2022, which will be held at 2pm Sunday April 10 at Belmore Park, near Central Station. The march will proceed up Broadway to Victoria Park where it will disperse.
The poster for the rally follows PalmSundayRally2022
The rally’s original focus was to educate people about the AUKUS agreement between Australia, the UK and USA and protest warmongering comments by some Australian commentators and politicians intent on exacerbating tensions between our country and China for political gain. Further, we wanted to emphasise that war creates refugees.
The Australian government continues to mistreat refugees transferred from Manus and Nauru for medical treatment by detaining them in hotel prisons. Two hundred and thirty refugees remain stuck on Nauru and PNG with little prospect of resettlement, and the Biloela Muragappan family and their two children remain in visa limbo and in community detention in Perth, far from Biloela.
We hope to see you there and that you'll join us at the rally and march with us.
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