Address for correspondence: Dr Bryan Gaensler Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics 60 Garden Street MS-6 Cambridge MA 02138 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Email: [email protected]
11 December, 2001
The Hon John Howard MP Prime Minister of Australia Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 AUSTRALIA cc: The Hon John Anderson MP Senator Bob Brown The Hon Simon Crean MP Senator Natasha Stott Despoja His Excellency The Right Reverend Dr Peter Hollingworth The Editor, The Advertiser The Editor, The Age The Editor, The Australian The Editor, The Canberra Times The Editor, The Courier-Mail The Editor, The Mercury The Editor, The Northern Territory News The Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald The Editor, The West Australian Current Affairs Bureau, Australian Broadcasting Corporation News Desk, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Dear Prime Minister, We write to you as a group of Australian citizens currently living overseas, who share a common concern with regard to recent events in Australia that have attracted significant international criticism. We are proud that Australia is one of the most multicultural countries in the world. Immigrants have made a profound contribution to Australia’s unique national character. Although our history is not perfect in this regard, we have succeeded in creating a common identity through tolerance and open-mindedness towards those who join our community. In this light, we are disturbed and disappointed by the Federal Government’s actions in relation to the desperate plight of refugees. We are deeply concerned that Australia’s international standing as an open and tolerant nation has been compromised. As ambassadors for our country, we have found it difficult to justify to our overseas colleagues the Australian Government’s recent decisions in this regard. Furthermore, we strongly object to the Government’s use of language that de-humanises and vilifies refugees trying to escape persecution. We feel that, as Prime Minister, you have a responsibility to encourage Australian citizens to overcome their fears and uncertainties about the significant changes that are currently taking place in the international sphere. Instead, we believe that your Government has framed the debate in a way that gives legitimacy to intolerance in the general community. We ask you to move beyond populism and to conduct Australia’s affairs in a way that reflects our status as a forward-thinking nation. We call on the Australian Government to comply with its international treaty obligations with respect to refugees, and to meet its responsibilities as an international citizen in responding to humanitarian disasters. We call on the Australian Government to respond to the current refugee crisis (as it did for East Timor) by increasing the number of available places in the Humanitarian Program for the refugees currently fleeing Central Asia and the Middle East. We call on the Australian Government to put an end to mandatory detention and to inhumane treatment of asylum seekers. We care deeply about Australia’s role and future direction, and strongly entreat you to re-visit these issues. Yours sincerely,
Dr Bryan Gaensler Cambridge MA, USA Clay Fellow, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Harvard University 1999 Young Australian of the Year
Ms Geraldine Chin Cambridge MA, USA Fulbright Scholar and Knox Fellow, Harvard Law School, Harvard University
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