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MEDIA
RELEASE |
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Eight days before polling day, the Federal election campaign will hit the streets of central Melbourne when Dr Bob Brown addresses a mass refugee rally on Friday 1 October. Senator Brown, Federal leader of the Australian Greens, will address the pre-election refugee rally at 5pm outside Melbourne’s State Library. Thousands of people are expected to take to Melbourne’s streets to demand justice for refugees and to remind voters of the “children overboard” lies that helped the Coalition win government in the 2001 election. Protestors will be calling for an end to mandatory detention, the “Pacific Solution” and to ensure full citizenship rights for refugees on Temporary Protection Visas and Bridging Visa Es. Senator Brown has been sharply critical of both the Coalition government and the Opposition’s refugee policies. His party is calling for an end to mandatory detention and the abolition of the Government’s punitive visa regime. The rally comes less
than a month after Peter Qasim, a stateless refugee who was tortured before
fleeing Kashmir, began his seventh year in detention. The rally has been
organised by Refugee Action Collective of Victoria, one of the main groups
involved in the Woomera 2002 protest and numerous other recent demonstrations. “Australians
are increasingly seeing through the Government’s scapegoating and
scaremongering,” said RAC Victoria spokesperson Tim Petterson. “This protest
will give visible expression to the changing mood in the Australian electorate
towards asylum seekers,” he continued. “Both major parties need to lift their game and deliver just, humane policies instead of locking up or discriminating against people fleeing persecution and torture. More and more Australians are saying ‘enough!’ ” The protest is likely
to cause significant traffic disruption within the CBD. |