Page 1503 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 9 May 2017
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
We cannot and will not be silent while the Federal Government, supported by the Labor Opposition, continues to imprison people in Australia’s immigration detention centres, many for years on end. This is particularly so in light of the forced deportations that the PNG Government has now started, with Australian Government support.
The 250,000 people included a number of groups such as Unions for Refugees, including but not limited to the firies, teachers, nurses, public servants and metal workers, mums and grand-mums for refugees, Rainbow Action, many faith-based groups, including the St Vincent de Paul Society and Muslims for a progressive society, and also cyclists for refugees, Lawyers for Refugees, medicos for refugees, academics for refugees, students for refugees and regional groups from Yass and Queanbeyan.
I was proud to speak at the beginning of the vigil and lead off the rally with Anglican Bishop Stephen Pickard, Catholic Bishop Pat Power, Uniting Church, Canberra region chair, Vanessa Crimmins and Clerk of Canberra Quakers, Kay de Vogel. I commend the Refugee Action Committee for its ongoing work and look forward to the day when it will no longer be necessary.
On 19 April I spoke at the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network rally. They are calling for a diversion of funds from offensive military purposes to urgent social needs. This was part of the Global Day of Action on Military Spending, which in Australia was organised by the Medical Association for Prevention of War, ACT Quakers, the Independent and Peaceful Australian Network—that is, IPAN—and the Australians for Justice and Peace in Palestine. Australia spends $87 million a day on the military and we have allocated $67 billion to building submarines and ordering 72 very flawed F35 fighters.
On the morning of the rally, news broke that over 6,000 women a year end up in emergency departments in Australia as a result of domestic violence. That is one of the very real threats we experience in our own homes. We are far less at risk of terrorist attack and we are far less at risk of going to war than we are of experiencing domestic violence; or domestic terrorism, as some call it. Yet we only find $100 million a year to invest in this issue in the federal budget, whereas we spend billions on warfare.
The federal government’s priorities are simply wrong. We need more expenditure on welfare, not warfare. That expenditure needs to include expenditure overseas, foreign aid, so that we reduce the things that cause warfare. We all know that there has been a drought in the Middle East for about the past six years. People who are starving do things that they would not otherwise do. If we wish to reduce the threats of terrorism, if we want to reduce the threat of warfare, then we need to make sure that all human beings are treated equitably and have food and shelter.
That, of course, includes people in Australia as well. We need to spend more money on welfare so that those people who live on the margins, who do not have a roof over their head and who struggle to live from pay cheque to pay cheque, have a better life.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video