Dear Mr Morrison,

I am friend of the Centre for a Compassionate Society, which meets every week in the electorate of Melbourne. I live in the electorate of ***. We have committed to writing a letter to your government every week until all refugees and asylum-seekers who remain on Nauru and in PNG under Operation Sovereign Borders are appropriately re-settled. We also seek humane treatment for refugees and asylum seekers on-shore. We are copying this letter to the Minister for Home Affairs, the Minister for Immigration, the Shadow Minister for Home Affairs and Immigration, and to our local members of parliament.

We remind you of some words in your maiden speech to Parliament. In the spirit of Desmond Tutu you reminded us that:

We expect Christians to be those who stand up for the truth, to stand up for justice, to stand on the side of the poor and the hungry, the homeless and the naked. And when that happens, then Christians will be trustworthy, believable witnesses. 

Prime Minister, there are some poor and homeless people who have been made so by your government’s punitive refugee policies. They have fled their homelands seeking safety, and instead have been met with the ongoing horror of indefinite detention. As Rev Tim Costello has recently pointed out, it would be illegal to treat a dog this way, and it is illegal under international law to treat people with such cruel and unusual punishment. 

Desmond Tutu has run his race, and we imagine that he died knowing that he stood courageously for the principles that you also claimed to hold dear. Will your legacy be the continued and completely useless destruction of these people’s lives, or will you adhere to the values that your Christian faith espouses?
Yours sincerely,

Yours sincerely,

*

Send your letter to the Prime Minister via his website HERE.

You could cc it to:

• Mr Alex Hawke: alex.hawke.mp@aph.gov.au (The Immigration Minister)
• Ms Kristina Keneally: senator.keneally@aph.gov.au (Shadow Minister for Immigration and Home affairs)
• Ms Karen Andrews: karen.andrews.mp@aph.gov.au (Minister for Home Affairs).
• and to your local Federal MP.