Nationwide Online: Call to Action

We are encouraging our members to follow up on these actions below:

• People just need to copy and paste the image and text into an email, and add their local MP’s email address
• MP’s Email addresses are on:
  • AHP Website –  https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Guidelines_for_Contacting_Senators_and_Members
  • ARAN Website –  https://aran.net.au/resources/letter-writing/  – Members of the House of Representatives as at 18 Sept 2019
    • Email addresses – ACT MPs
      Email addresses – NSW MPs
      Email addresses – NT MPs
      Email addresses – Qld MPs
      Email addresses – SA MPs
      Email addresses – Tas MPs
      Email addresses – Vic MPs
      Email addresses – WA MPs
  • Links to background info so people can add info they want·   Australian Minister Dutton claims he’s saving lives by locking up Tamil family on Christmas Island
  • ·   Christmas Island detention centre cost $27 million to ‘detain four people’

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Dear [Insert the name of your local MP],

I am writing to ask you to intervene with the Minister of Immigration.

Please help bring this little family of four back from Christmas Island, and allow them once more to live in the Central Queensland town of Biloela.

Sincerely

Your name

Your address

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Australian’s stand ready to help! Just a swipe of the pen and we could avoid an outbreak of Covid 19 in detention. Read the full Guardian Article here. 

There are tens of thousands of people seeking asylum and refugees in Australia and in offshore detention centres who are facing extreme need and are incredibly vulnerable to the COVID-19 virus. While the support packages announced to date by the Morrison government are welcome news for many, they have left out many people who will be affected by this pandemic.

This is a public health issue.   With a public health emergency unfolding, we are all benefited by people having an income, housing and medical support. It is particularly outrageous that some people don’t even have access to Medicare at this critical time. This is a risk to us all. We cannot leave people behind.

Templates can be downloaded here

PLEASE

• EMAIL/WRITE TO YOUR LOCAL MPs BOTH STATE AND FEDERAL AND ASK THEM TO EXTEND SUPPORT TO PEOPLE SEEKING ASYLUM AND REFUGEES.
• EMAIL/WRITE TO THE FEDERAL HEALTH MINISTER GREG HUNT

You could include the following points.

1. Move people urgently out of crowded immigration detention facilities
2. Ensure a financial safety net and Medicare access for people seeking asylum and refugees in Australia
3. Prevent people losing legal status and access to support
4. Move refugees and people seeking asylum from PNG and Nauru
5. Ensure that refugees on temporary SHEV visas are not penalised in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• EMAIL/WRITE ANNE RUSTON MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SECURITY ASKING THAT PEOPLE BE GIVEN ACCESS TO JOB SEEKER AND JOB KEEPER PAYMENT AND OTHE COVID-19 CRISIS SUPPORTS REGARDLESS OF THEIR VISA STATUS

Anne Ruston, PO Box1671 Renmark 5341. (08) 8586 6600  

• EMAIL/WRITE TO THE STATE PREMIER AND HEALTH MINISTER IN YOUR STATE OR TERRITORY CALLING FOR THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF DETAINEES.

Federal MPs and Senators Dec 2019 – addresses, phone numbers and emails can be found at https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Guidelines_for_Contacting_Senators_and_Members

This would support the call in the Doctors’ Open Letter to the government.

1,100 doctors, psychiatrists and healthcare professionals have written to government and demanded the immediate release of refugees and asylum seekers in detention.

To quote David Isaacs a paediatric infectious diseases professor at the University of Sydney.  “Failure to take action to release people seeking asylum and refugees from detention will not only put them at greater risk of infection and possible death. …  It also risks placing a greater burden on wider Australian society and the health care system.”

This is one of the gravest challenges we have all faced together we must motivate every RAR member to act.