On the 1st of August, 2014, I arrived back in Australia after ten years living in the US. What brought me back was anger and frustration. Since 2001 I had watched in horror as Australia sent asylum seekers arriving by boat to the remote Islands of Nauru and Manus. I was horrified in 2001 when in reaction to a boatload of predominantly Afghan Hazaras arriving on our shores fleeing Taliban persecution, our then Prime Minister John Howard, defied the Refuge Convention of which we are a signatory, and denied them entry to Australia declaring, "We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come."
In 2007, when Australia's conservative government was defeated at election, I cheered in New York with friends as under Kevin Rudd's leadership the camps were closed. Several years later I reeled in horror when the same man reopened the camps declaring "from now on no asylum seeker arriving by boat will ever be resettled in Australia".
On Wednesday night we projected images from my film Chasing Asylum onto the exterior of Australia House, the offices of Australia's High Commissioner, Alexander Downer. The images are of secret footage obtained for the film from inside Australia's notorious detention centres on the Republic of Nauru and Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. Full story...
Related posts:
In 2007, when Australia's conservative government was defeated at election, I cheered in New York with friends as under Kevin Rudd's leadership the camps were closed. Several years later I reeled in horror when the same man reopened the camps declaring "from now on no asylum seeker arriving by boat will ever be resettled in Australia".
On Wednesday night we projected images from my film Chasing Asylum onto the exterior of Australia House, the offices of Australia's High Commissioner, Alexander Downer. The images are of secret footage obtained for the film from inside Australia's notorious detention centres on the Republic of Nauru and Manus Island, Papua New Guinea. Full story...
Related posts:
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