RAC EVENTS IN 2016:
| DATE | PLACE | EVENT | SPEAKERS |
| February 4th, 5:30pm | State Library | Let Them Stay! – Don’t Return Refugees and Asylum Seekers to Abuse on Nauru | – Pamela Curr (ASRC)
– Alex Bhathal (Greens) – Mohammad Baqiri (refugee activist who was detained on Nauru as a child) – Colin Long (National Tertiary Education Union) |
| February 15th, 6:30-8pm | Australian Nursing Federation | RAC meeting including a discussion of campaign to ‘let them stay’ | |
| February 19th, 6pm | Bourke Street Mall | Speak out in solidarity with Lady Cilento hospital workers. Let baby Asha stay. | |
| February 23rd, 6pm | Melbourne’s Multicultural Hub | What I saw as a teacher on Nauru – former worker and principal speak out | – Paul Dingle (principal from Glenroy Secondary College)
– Former teacher from RPC1 school on Nauru |
| February 26th, 6:30-9pm | 120-150 Camp Road, Broadmeadows (MITA) | Vigil at MITA detention centre: close the camps and let them stay | – Reza Yaramahadi (Kurdish refugee)
– Alex Bhathal (Greens) – Sister Brigid Arthur (Brigidine Asylum Seeker Project) |
| February 27th, 6pm | Corner Swanston and Lonsdale St, Melbourne | Speak out against Turnbull: Let Them Stay | |
| March 6th, 12pm | Flinders Street Station | Solidarity from Melbourne to Calais: Welcome Refugees | |
| March 21st, 7pm | 540 Elizabeth Street | Fighting for LGBTI refugee rights: the case of Nima and Ashkan | – Amy Frew (Human Rights Legal Centre) |
| April 4th, 6:30 | Melbourne’s Multicultural Hub | What will it take to let them stay? | – Adam Bandt (Greens)
– Reza Yarahmadi (refugee activist, 3CR presenter and Iranian Kurdish Refugee) – Katie Robertson (lawyer) – Wil Stracke (Victorian Trades Hall Industrial/Campaigns Officer) – Lachlan Marshall (RAC member) |
| April 8th, 5:30pm | Peninsula, Shed 14 Central Pier, 161 Harbour Esplanade, Docklands | Protest Turnbull – Close Manus, Close Nauru | |
| April 30th, 1pm | State Library of Victoria | Rally to #BringThemHere – Manus is Illegal! | – Adam Bandt (Greens)
– Aran Mylvaganam (Tamil refugee and financial sector union organiser) – Pamela Curr (ASRC) |
| May 5th, 4:30 | DIBP (Casseldon Place) corner of Spring and Lonsdale Streets | Speak out and vigil for Hodan #BringThemHere | – Pamela Curr (ASRC)
– Somali Community Speakers – Margaret Sinclair (RAC) – Alex Bhathal (Greens) |
| May 26th, 7-9pm | Sun Theatre | CHASING ASYLUM premiere – fundraiser for the Refugee Action Collective | |
| June 6th, 6:30pm | ANMF house, 540 Elizabeth Street | Intro to RAC night | |
| June 17th – 19th | The Stables, cnr Wreckyn and Courtney Street, North Melbourne | Through Jungle Eyes: Refugee photography and volunteer artwork from Calais | |
| June 18th, 1pm | State Library | Rally: Close Manus, Close Nauru, Bring Them Here! – No votes in abuse | – Sarah Hanson Young (Greens)
– Mohammad Baqiri (refugee activist, Afghan refugee, speaker from Victorian Trades Hall Council) – Dr Louise Newman (Professor of Psychiatry) – Dr Barri Phataford (Doctors for Refugees) – Angelica Panopoulos (RAC) |
| June 27th, 5-6pm | Bourke Street Mall | Solidarity with 100 days protest on Nauru – speak out and RAC information stall | |
| July 18th, 6:30pm | Melbourne’s Multicultural Hub | After the election, what are the alternatives to offshore processing? | – Pamela Curr (ASRC)
– Phone link up from Nauru – Margaret Sinclair (RAC) |
| August 27th, 1-3pm | State Library of Victoria | Rally: Close the Camps, Bring the Refugees Here | – Adam Bandt (Greens)
– Pamela Curr (ASRC) – Jane Willey (ex-teacher on Nauru and author of some of the leaked Nauru files) – Mohammad Salamat (Ahwazi refugee who spent time detained on Nauru in 2012) – Aran Mylvaganam (Tamil refugee and union organiser) |
| September 5th, 6:30-8:30pm | ANMF House, 540 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne | Manus and Nauru: The Law and the Crime of Offshore Processing | – Tracy Aylmer (lawyer who filed a case with the ICC against the refugee policies of the Australian Government)
– Katie Robertson (lawyer who led a case that successfully prevented the transfer to Nauru of 25 babies born to asylum seekers in Australia) – Lachlan Marshall (RAC) |
| September 10th, 3:30-5pm | ANMF House, 540 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne | Close Nauru, Free Mojgan: Teachers speak out | – Jane Willey (former Save the Children teacher on Nauru)
– Jessica Walker (teacher at Yeronga State High School in Brisbane who leads the campaign to free Iranian refugee student Mojgan) – Justin Mullaly (Secretary of the Australian Education Union Victoria Branch) |
| October 3rd, 6:30-8:30pm | Multicultual Hub | Discussion and debate on strategy for the refugee movement | – Robert Manne (Emeritus Prrofessor of Politics, La Trobe University)
– Chris Breen (RAC) |
| November 5th, 1-4pm | State Library | It’s Time: Close the camps, bring the refugees here! | – Richard Di Natale – leader of the Australian Greens
– Dr Umber Rind – Doctors for Refugees – Miream Salameh – Syrian refugee and artist – Nigethan Sithirasegaram – Tamil refugee, one of the ‘ASIO’ refugees detained for over 6 years on spurious security grounds, whilst never being told the grounds, or having any avenue to appeal them. – Speaker from Welcome to Eltham |
| November 7th, 6:30-8pm | ANMF House | Let the refugees in: eyewitness accounts from Nauru | – Harry Hicks (worked in construction on Nauru)
– Yoong Wai (volunteered at refugee camps in Malaysia) |
| December 10th, 1-6 | Reverence Hotel, 28 Napier Street, Footscray | Rock 4 Refugees! Human Rights Day Fundraising Gig | Performers:
– The Fabric DJs – The Same Boat – A Rioting Mind – Littlefoot – The Accountants – Damian Callinan – Nelly Thomas – Josh Earl – Soreti Kadir – Benjamin Solah – Rikki Livermore |