If Cathy doesn’t vote for the bill, it probably won’t pass. This is a chance to finally get the help these children desperately need. Cathy has said she wants her constituents to tell her how they feel, and that she’s undecided. She must be told loud and clear that she needs to show some backbone.

Scott Morrison has the power to immediately end the suffering of refugee children, their families and others seeking asylum who are stuck in limbo on Nauru. They are being further traumatised every day that he refuses to not act in their interests. As a nation we cannot stand by and allow innocent children on Nauru continue to live in misery which prevents them from accessing a future all children deserve. The Prime Minister must stop putting his own political interests ahead of the welfare of those asylum seekers who rely on us to give them hope and safety. As educators we owe it to these children to put our full support behind them and tell the federal Liberal government to act with humanity and compassion, not hatred and division. By signing the letter to the Prime Minister you can stand with educators around Australia demanding that Scott Morrison acts.

We may have won marriage equality, but the fight is not over. The government has led brutal attacks on trans and non-binary people with the cuts to Safe Schools; queer people seeking refuge in Australia after fleeing from countries where they face persecution for being queer, are locked in offshore torture camps indefinitely by the Australian government, in countries where it is also illegal to be queer and where queer-bashing is common; the Liberals have set up a ridiculous inquiry into ‘religious freedom’ to discriminate against queer people; queer people can still be fired for being queer; meanwhile queer people still experience high rates of depression, homelessness, danger from incarceration, and suicide. We need to make it clear that none of this is acceptable, and we will not allow the Liberal party to promote themselves in our parade in the lead up to the election while this continues. We also in particular stand in solidarity with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, trans people, and others who continue to frequently be assaulted by police, and this cannot be allowed. Across the world Pride parades are removing the police in recognition of the cruel role they continue to play in society - Aboriginal people in Australia are one of the most incarcerated populations on the planet and many have died in police custody. This is no coincidence. We cannot ignore this. We also do not think it is ethical for us to be connected to corporations which undermine vulnerable parts of our community, such as asylum seekers. Many seek to come to Australia as they flee homophobic execution, and they are either imprisoned in offshore detention where homosexuality is illegal or sent back to the places that abuse them. In the UK their Pride march called upon the airlines to cease deportation, and managed to win a commitment to ending forced deportations. We can too!

Following the Commonwealth Games held at the Gold Coast in April this year roughly 250 athletes fled, seeking protection and safety in Australia. In May, then Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton told 2GB Radio that he needed to "round them up as quickly as possible". A number of these athletes are LGBTI. If they are forced to return to their home countries where homosexuality is illegal, they face the prospect of vicious punishment including "corrective" rape. Others face persecution for having political opinions that oppose their home governments. One of the athletes recently told the Canberra Times, “I just want to live a normal life where I can be free and nobody judges me.” All of these athletes should have the right to live safely in a country which will protect them. More information: https://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/i-don-t-think-i-will-survive-if-i-go-home-20180727-p4ztz6.html

Vietnamese asylum seeker Huyen is facing deportation and indefinite separation from her 4 month old baby Isabella and husband Paul. Catholics are a persecuted minority in Vietnam, and Huyen fled this persecution in 2011. She arrived in Australia by boat, and was detained in Darwin, Christmas Island, Villawood, and then in community detention. In November 2017, Huyen was living in St Albans in Melbourne with her husband Paul, and was 4 months pregnant when she was taken into MITA detention centre in Broadmeadows. In January this year Border Force loaded her onto a chartered flight to Vietnam, but she was 8 months pregnant and so was taken off the plane just before it departed. Huyen is now in MITA detention centre with her 4 month old daughter, and there are no legal barriers to her deportation. Her husband Paul, Isabella’s father, must submit to drug tests, metal detectors, and notoriously elaborate application forms to visit them after work each day. Isabella has inherited her father’s 457 visa status (he is Mauritius Chinese), and if she is deported Huyen would be indefinitely separated from her daughter and husband. Catholic asylum seekers who were returned to Vietnam from Indonesia last year were harassed, arrested, and threatened with imprisonment. Government led and government sanctioned land confiscations, church burnings, violence and threats of torture continue against Catholics and other religious minorities in Vietnam. The UNHCR has just condemned Australia for separating a Sri Lankan refugee family, where the father was deported leaving the mother and 11 month old baby in Sydney. UNHCR is urging the Government of Australia to uphold the fundamental principle of family unity, and allow family members to be together. XIN ĐỪNG TRỤC XUẤT HUYỀN – ĐỪNG CHIA RẼ GIA ĐÌNH HUYỀN Kính gởi Ông Peter Dutton , Bộ trưởng bộ di trú Cô Huyền là một người tầm trú vượt biển tìm tự do đang có nguy cơ bị trục xuất về Việt nam đau xót lìa xa con thơ Isabella 4 tháng và chồng là Paul Đàn áp Công giáo tại Nghệ an Việt nam đã đẩy Huyền trốn chạy khỏi Việt nam bằng ghe vượt biển ,đến đảo Chrismas Island , rồi trại cấm Darwin , trại cấm Villawood , nhà quản thúc . Tháng 11/2017 , đang sống ở St Albans với chồng thì Huyền bị bắt đưa vào trại biệt giam MITA lúc đang mang thai được 4 tháng . Tháng 1/2018 Huyền bị đưa ra sân bay để trục xuất về Việt nam , nhưng lúc đó thai nhi đã được 8 tháng , vì sự an toàn cho thai nhi nên nhân viên bộ di trú đã đưa Huyền xuống khỏi máy bay trở lại trại MITA Bây giờ Huyền đang ở trại MITA với con gái 4 tháng mà không được tí ân huệ nào ngăn chận nguy cơ trục xuất về Việt nam . Anh Paul mỗi ngày sau khi đi làm về phải trải qua nhiều khám xét về ma túy , vũ khí và độc dược để điền đơn vào thăm vợ con . Bé Isabella thừa nhận visa 457 của cha ( Paul là người Trung Hoa) visa làm việc tạm thời , do đó nếu bị trục xuất cô sẽ đau đớn xa con thơ và chồng Năm ngoái bộ di trú đã trục xuất những người tầm trú vì bị đàn áp tôn giáo về Việt nam từ Indonesia , những người này đã bị quấy nhiễu , bị bắt bỏ tù , bị tra tấn và đe dọa đến khủng hoảng Nhà nước Việt nam đã ra sắc lệnh tịch thu đất đai , đốt cháy nhà thờ , đập phá các nơi thờ cúng của đạo Công giáo và các đạo khác Cao ủy tỵ nạn Liên Hiệp Quốc cũng lên án bộ di trú Úc đã tàn nhẫn trục xuất người chồng người tỵ nạn Sri Lanka về nước bỏ lại vợ và con 11 tháng ở Sydney . Cao ủy tỵ nạn Liên Hiệp Quốc cũng yêu cầu chính phủ Úc phải quan tâm và xét lại đạo luật nhân đạo để giữ cho gia đình được ở chung với nhau Chúng tôi xin Ông Bộ trưởng Dutton hãy cho Huyền một ân huệ cuối cùng để được ra khỏi trại biệt giam MITA và ân xá cho Huyền được theo visa của chồng và con .

Australia continues to forcibly deport asylum seekers back to places such as Sri Lanka, Iraq, and Afghanistan where they face imprisonment, torture and death. Article 33 of the UN Refugee Convention, to which Australia is a signatory, states “No Contracting State shall expel or return ('refouler’) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his [sic] life or freedom would be threatened on account of his [sic] race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.” Thousands of asylum seekers in Australia are at risk of deportation particularly because the Coalition government changed asylum assessment processes and abolished the Refugee Review Tribunal. An investigation by the Edmund Rice Centre in 2011 found that of 179 refugees who were forcibly returned to Afghanistan 20 had been confirmed killed and dozens more had disappeared. An update of the report in July 2017 concludes “it would be impossible for Australian, European and other governments to guarantee the safety of Afghan returnees in this period of instability”. Deportation itself is a brutal process often involving physical or chemical restraint. It breaches Australia’s obligations under international law. People deported by Australia have been bound and gagged. Deportations sometimes occur in the middle of the night with little to no warning for the person being deported. In 2010 Jimmy Mubenga, was suffocated to death while being restrained on a British Airways flight during deportation by the UK government. Deportation invariably puts passenger safety at risk because asylum seekers will often rightfully resist the process. Abdlmoneim Khogali, a Sudanese asylum seeker handcuffed to a passenger seat ripped the seat from its floor mountings in an attempt to avoid deportation from Australia. He was then beaten by guards in front of passengers. Several attempts were made to inject him with tranquilliser, the needle missed and bent into the seat. He was eventually injected with that same bent and contaminated needle, and bears scars from it. Deportation is self-evidently harmful for asylum seekers and can also be traumatic for airline staff and passengers. Airlines are not legally required to carry out forced deportations. In Germany pilots refused to carry out deportations 222 times between January and September 2017. Lufthansa spokesman Michael Lamberty told the Westdeutsche Allegeimeine Zeitung newspaper that pilots were able to make such decisions if they thought that flight safety could be affected. Deportations are happening here in Australia quite frequently. Just weeks ago a Tamil family from Biloela in Queensland were ripped from their beds in the middle of the night. Priya, Nades and their two young girls now face imminent deportation from MITA detention centre in Melbourne. We know that Tamils face torture and even death upon their return to Sri Lanka. This petition has been endorsed by: - Dr Gillian Triggs - Julian Burnside - People Just Like Us - The Edmund Rice Centre

The Pacific Solution is a failed policy. Mandatory detention of refugees is a failed policy. Every week brings a new low in Australia's refugee policy. Every day brings fresh heartache and despair for refugees suffering at Australia's hands. And right now, every hour brings thirst, hunger and the risk of death-by-policy to the 600 men on Manus Island left without power, water, food or medical supplies by the closure of the refugee camp without provision for safe settlement of the people detained there for years. Last year thousands of Australians rallied and organised, protested, moved motions in their unions and community organisations and demanded sanctuary for asylum-seekers and refugees in Australia for medical care. At that time, state governments stepped up to offer protection to these vulnerable people. In the same way, the Queensland state government should offer safety, housing and settlement services, both because it is humane and to help break the federal political consensus that there is no limit to the abuse that can be directed at refugees, in the attempt to look "tough." Refugees are not our enemy. It is heartless racism and vilification of the vulnerable that is the biggest threat in this situation. It is time to stop saying "stop the boats" and start to recogise asylum saves lives.

As the Government is aware, homosexual men are being rounded up and held in concentration camps. We understand that they are being tortured and killed by Chechnyan authorities. Chechnyan leaders are also calling for families to kill their gay relatives. Some are managing to escape Chechnya, but persecution against LGBTI people is ongoing in Russia, and offers no safe haven. We cannot standby and watch as gay people are killed by their own Governments which should be protecting their rights. As an open and accepting society, and under its human rights obligations, Australia should offer refuge to any LGBT asylum seekers fleeing from these forms of persecution. We can create a safe place for these men to live without fear and persecution. The Australian Government needs to act now!

We support Teachers for Refugees! Teachers for Refugees (T4R) needs our support. T4R seeks to raise awareness about the cruel and inhumane treatment of asylum seekers, including hundreds of school-age children, in Australian-run detention centres. To this end, members and supporters of T4R will be wearing pro-refugee t-shirts to school next week and will hold a vigil on Monday after class from 6pm at City Square. For encouraging teachers to publicly show opposition to the systematic abuse of asylum seekers in detention centres, the group has been subjected to a campaign of vilification by the Murdoch press. The Liberal government, from the Prime Minister to the Federal Immigration and Education ministers, have now turned their fire on T4R, urging Principles to discipline or even sack teachers for wearing the t-shirts. This is both an attack on freedom of political expression, and an attempt to intimidate and silence the voices of refugee supporters. Shamefully the government has long restricted the right to free speech with regard to its treatment of asylum seekers. This includes criminalising teachers of asylum seekers who speak out against cases of abuse in detention, via the Border Force Act. The Victorian branch of the Australian Education Union is in support of Teachers for Refugees, with Branch President Meredeth Peace publicly backing the t-shirt action. Strong support has also been forthcoming from refugee advocacy groups. It is crucial that we all voice our support now to give courage to teachers to take a stand and to send a message to Principles and the Federal government that their campaign of bullying and threats will be resisted. We the undersigned give complete support to Teachers for Refugees in their campaign to support asylum seekers and recognise their right to express themselves freely.

Queensland Unions stands in solidarity with the doctors, nurses and health care professionals of Lady Cilento Children's Hospital who are refusing to release Baby Asha without a safe environment for her to return "home" to. Nauru, and Manus, are not safe places. The Australian union movement says ... #LetThemStay

Because TISM