We Will Be Remembered For This: A Film About Australia

Hey There,

Have a look at the trailer for the film!!

http://www.myspace.com/wewillberemembered

Cheers

JT x

THE PRIME MINISTER HAS WITHDRAWN THE MIGRATION AMENDMENT BILL!!!

The Federal Government decided to withdraw its controversial new immigration laws because a coalition senator had vowed to cross the floor to oppose them, Prime Minister John Howard said today.
"It was made very clear to me this morning that a government senator would cross the floor and vote against the legislation," Mr Howard told reporters.

"The intention of that government senator was communicated directly to me in a one-on-one discussion that we had."

theage.com.au understands Mr Howard took the decision this morning when he realised insurrection within Government ranks would lead to the defeat of the bill and his authority being challenged.

Liberal senator Judith Troeth has led coalition dissent against the legislation, under which all boatpeople would have been processed in offshore detention centres even if they reached the Australian mainland.

Critics of the legislation said it was designed to appease Indonesia, which protested strongly when Australia granted asylum to a group of Papuan refugees who landed on Cape York earlier this year.

Family First senator Steve Fielding had said he would vote against the bill, while maverick Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce had threatened to follow suit.

Last week, Liberal MPs Petro Georgiou, Russell Broadbent and Judi Moylan crossed the floor of the House of Representatives to vote against the legislation, while fellow moderate Bruce Baird and Nationals MP John Forrest abstained from voting.

Mr Howard admitted today some Coalition members had reservations about the legislation.

"Plainly, this particular approach was not going to muster parliament's support," Mr Howard said

"Yet me make it clear that the existing law, in relation to people who do not make the Australian mainland, that involves offshore processing, that law will be maintained and utilised to the full.

"Those people who arrive on excised islands will still be processed in Nauru.

"None of those changes will go ahead because the whole bill has been withdrawn.

"The whole bill is out ... there were a number of changes that were intended but they're all out.

"I believe in this bill, I still do, but I don't believe there are the numbers to pass it in the Senate.

"I believe in it very strongly and I believe the community believed in it."

When asked how Indonesia would respond, Mr Howard said: "I don't know, and frankly that is a secondary consideration.

"This bill was not designed to get a tick in Jakarta."


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BLOODY FANTASTIC!!! WELL DONE EVERYONE!!! :)

being an ethnic minority in my own environment

one night this week i had a really strange experience. for a while i had been intending - with a few of my hazara friends (all seperately to eachother)- to go and have dinner at an afghan restaurant in dandenong. miraculously, we organised it.

after a lot of yes-i'm-coming-no-i'm-not-can-i-come-too etc, we finally got there. the party consisted of two friends of mine, a guy whom i'd never met before in my life who had kind of invited himself through a mutual friend, the wife of one of my other friends, and the 12 year old foster son of mutual friend! so - 5 hazaras and me, little aussie jess.

there were two women present - me, and my friend's wife. she and i had an odd sort of common link. all of the boys there - 4 of them - speak dari, hazaragi and english. my friend's wife, A, only speaks hazaragi and dari. of those languages, i only speak english (and i also know how to say "if you see a camel, don't *say* that you saw a camel" in dari - extremely helpful!). so, no matter which language the group was speaking, one of us was completely excluded from the conversation.

it was an eye-opener. i was in dandenong (which may as well be little Kabul sometimes!), and we were in a restaurant completely immersed in afghan culture. we were sitting on a carpet (me with my gammy, post-car crash dodgey knees, them cross legged like they've been doing it since birth), shoes off, ordering in dari, no worries. and it was really beautiful to see my friends in *their* environment, rather than mine, which is imposed on them by circumstance. it gave me a glimpse of the kind of massive cultural and environmental transplant that people have to undergo. on top of all the other trauma which goes along with being a refugee. yikes.

anyway, i just wanted to post about this.

most of my brainspace has been taken up by this stupid stupid stupid migration amendment, so i wanted to post about something which *didn't* involve writing to senators...!

cheers

jt x

Speech 7 August

Hey Guys,

I spoke at a fundraiser for an Afghani family on Monday night at Melbourne Uni. I spoke about my experiences at the UN, then Julian Burnside QC spoke about the horror that is the Migration Amendment Bill. If you're interested in reading my speech, you can find it at www.julianburnside.com - click on the 'speeches' link under the heading 'human rights'.

Unfortunately, Julian's speech was off-the-cuff and therefore isn't available verbatim. But you'll find heaps of other great stuff on his site.

Cheers!!

Jess x

Migration Bill Passed in Lower House - ACT NOW TO STOP IT IN THE SENATE!

The Migration Amendment Bill has passed in the House of
Representatives, so it is one giant step closer to becoming law.
BUT!!! The Bill can still be stopped in the Senate.

Please take the time to send emails and call the following people if
you haven't already. And if you have, let's go again.

If this law passes it will be the worst thing that's ever happened to
this country. This is our LAST CHANCE.

You should concentrate on 4 key senators who have not yet made up
their minds whether they will cross the floor and vote against the
amended Bill. Please contact these Senators this week and tell them
your opinion of the proposal in its latest amended form. Tell them it
is STILL not acceptable to the Australian people.

1. If you are a Christian, ring Steve Fielding, Family First Senator
Please passionately remind him that the Christian community is looking
to him to represent them and act on his convictions. He has made
plenty of noise on refugees but never acted so NOW is the crucial time
for him to act.

Tel: (03) 9802-1922
Info: http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/senators/homepages/s-e4r.htm
Email: senator.fielding@aph.gov.au

2. If you are a personal friend of refugees, ring Barnaby Joyce,
Nationals Senator
You should focus on how well your refugee friends have assimilated
into Australian society. This is a concern of his, "social upheaval"
(as he put it in an email to a ChilOut supporter), caused by
too-different-from-us people entering society. He needs reassurance
that there won't be social unrest as a result of new Australians'
presence!!!

Tel: (07) 4625-1500
Info: http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/senators/homepages/s-e5d.htm
Email: senator.joyce@aph.gov.au

3. Russell Trood, Liberal Senator
Also from QLD, he has shown a strong interest in human rights and
social justice but has not committed himself to voting against the
Bill. He needs encouragement – particularly if you are from QLD.

Tel: (07) 3372-4555
Info: http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/senators/homepages/s-e6a.htm
Email: senator.trood@aph.gov.au

4. Brett Mason, Liberal Senator
Another QLD Senator who hasn't made up his mind yet. Please ring him
and tell him why he should use his power as a Senator to stop children
being sent to Nauru ever again.

Tel: (07) 3422-1990
Info: http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/senators/homepages/s-84m.htm
Email: senator.mason@aph.gov.au

We mustn't let the Government get away with this.

COME ON PEOPLE!!!

Get a LOAD of this!

==============================
Racial abuse victim awarded $25,000
==============================

Sydney Morning Herald
Tim Dick
August 4, 2006

MOHAMED ABDULRAHMAN'S first name was too difficult for his colleagues, so they called him "bombchucker" instead.

The Toll Express employees pretended to stumble over the public address system - calling him "Mokaakaakaahamed" - and found another tag they could pronounce: Osama bin Laden. Mr Abdulrahman, who drove forklifts and stacked
trucks, was told to change his name to John or David or "whatever".

In a meeting about a work injury, a union delegate told him: "f---ing bombchucker … what do you think, you want to go home with $1 million and chuck bombs around Australia?"

Everyone in the room laughed, except Mr Abdulrahman. Now, the Administrative Decisions Tribunal has awarded him damages of $25,000.

It upheld his complaint of illegal race discrimination this week, finding he was repeatedly mocked in his work because of his race.

Mr Abdulrahman was born in Australia to parents who migrated from Lebanon but, according to his evidence, that did not matter to his colleagues when Iraq was invaded.

Every time Iraq was mentioned, his manager, Troy Wallace, asked "What happened to your cousins?"

He did not lodge a discrimination complaint earlier because he had a mortgage, wife and three children to support and needed his job. However, after 2ฝ years, he could not take it any more.

When the Anti-Discrimination Board investigated, the company's state manager, Jamie Primmer, said the complaint was without foundation.

The workers involved also denied doing anything wrong, and said Mr Abdulrahman had acted inappropriately to another worker.

But the union delegate, Les Ponting, agreed under cross-examination that name-calling and racial slurs were common at the plant, and he heard some of the abuse of Mr Abdulrahman.

The tribunal said it was "comfortably satisfied" about the allegations. It found that the company through its employees had "endorsed and condoned" a discriminatory workplace that caused Mr Abdulrahman "a great deal of distress, humiliation and embarrassment".

It awarded $25,000 damages but did not order Toll Express to apologise because "there would be little value in an apology that was not genuine".

Mr Abdulrahman, who is not working at present, welcomed the decision. "I've worked everywhere in Australia, and it's never happened," he said.

The general manager of Toll Express, Neil Pollington, said the company would appeal against the decision.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/racial-abuse-victim-awarded-25000/2006/08/03/1154198272429.html

URGENT CALL TO ACTION: NEXT WEEK'S MIGRATION BILL

Parliament resumes on 8 August and the Government will try to push through the amended Pacific Solution expansion bill on that day. That is next Tuesday. The Liberal MPs who have opposed the Bill have done so with the support of the community and they need it to continue, now more crucially than ever before.

You should concentrate on 4 key senators who have not yet made up their minds whether they will cross the floor and vote against the amended Bill. Please contact these Senators this week and tell them your opinion of the proposal in its latest amended form. Tell them it is STILL not acceptable to the Australian people.

1. If you are a Christian, ring Steve Fielding, Family First Senator
Please passionately remind him that the Christian community is looking to him to represent them and act on his convictions. He has made plenty of noise on refugees but never acted so NOW is the crucial time for him to act.

Tel: (03) 9802-1922
Info: http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/senators/homepages/s-e4r.htm
Email: senator.fielding@aph.gov.au

2. If you are a personal friend of refugees, ring Barnaby Joyce, Nationals Senator
You should focus on how well your refugee friends have assimilated into Australian society. This is a concern of his, "social upheaval" (as he put it in an email to a ChilOut supporter), caused by too-different-from-us people entering society. He needs reassurance that there won’t be social unrest as a result of new Australians’ presence!!!

Tel: (07) 4625-1500
Info: http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/senators/homepages/s-e5d.htm
Email: senator.joyce@aph.gov.au

3. Russell Trood, Liberal Senator
Also from QLD, he has shown a strong interest in human rights and social justice but has not committed himself to voting against the Bill. He needs encouragement – particularly if you are from QLD.

Tel: (07) 3372-4555
Info: http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/senators/homepages/s-e6a.htm
Email: senator.trood@aph.gov.au

4. Brett Mason, Liberal Senator
Another QLD Senator who hasn't made up his mind yet. Please ring him and tell him why he should use his power as a Senator to stop children being sent to Nauru ever again.

Tel: (07) 3422-1990
Info: http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/senators/homepages/s-84m.htm
Email: senator.mason@aph.gov.au

We mustn't let the Government get away with this. We must remind the politicians that despite it being the winter recess, we have not forgotten the amended Bill and they are being very closely watched.

COME ON PEOPLE!!!

Here a Detention Centre, There a Detention Centre, Everywhere a Detention Centre

I love this cartoon. It's genuis.

It refers to the fact that they're currently building an 800-bed detention facility on Christmas Island at the bargain cost of only $300 million dollars!!

Pretty amazing stuff, considering the one and only boat we've had in ages had 43 West Papuans in it, every single one of whom has now been recognised as a refugee.

Ten out of ten for being desperately cruel and economically promiscuous for no reason except political point-scoring.

(see below for suggestions re better ways to spend $300 million)

Um, Pardon Me?!

$17 million dollars?! fitness centre?! MACHINE GUNS?!?

For crying out loud. Get a load of this:
---

Govt wants private boat to patrol northern waters

ABC Online News
Tuesday, August 1, 2006. 6:44pm (AEST)

The Federal Government has has decided to hire a private patrol boat to search for illegal fishing boats in Australia's northern waters.

The Government says the boat will act as a mother ship, detaining suspected illegal fishermen.

It is advertising a $17 million contract for a private boat that will be fitted with machine guns and used to patrol the waters off the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

The Government wants a boat and a civilian crew, who will be accompanied by up to 30 customs and defence personnel and be able to take to the water in January next year.

The Government says the boat has to also be able to hold up to 30 suspected illegal fishermen, and be fast enough to chase and catch foreign boats, even into international waters.

The tender says it would be desirable if the patrol boat had a fitness centre for 30 people.

---

Why don't they spend this amount of money on getting rid of the tens of thousands (yes, that's right, tens of thousands) of Brits, Americans and Europeans who overstay their visas each year?! OR (call me crazy) on schools, hospitals, aged care, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and alleviating debt in the developing world.

geez i must be an irrational hippy. that's some crazy talk, isn't it? haha! hospitals! aged care! alleviating debt! oh stop, you're killing me.

hmm.