BuddiesSupporting refugees

ABOUT BUDDIESThe Buddies Refugee Support Group is a Sunshine Coast group which advocates for just and compassionate treatment of refugees, consistent with the human rights standards which Australia has developed and endorsed.We support policies towards refugees and asylum seekers that reflect respect, decency and traditional

Australian generosity to those in need, while advancing Australia’s international standing and national interests.We are an independent community group and meet on the 4th Sunday of each month at 11am, 24 King Street Buderim.ConfidentialityYour email address is completely confidential. The Bulletin is sent Bcc [Blind carbon copy] and no-one else sees your email address.

www.refugeebuddies.org.au

BuddiesSupporting refugees

To contribute to BuddiesBuddies’ fundraising contributes to refugee and asylum seeker support. You can direct debit to: SUNCORP BANK, BSB 484-799ACCOUNT NO: 605927994ACCOUNT NAME: BUDDIES REFUGEE SUPPORT GROUPOr you can contribute to ‘The Box’ at our meetings and events. Your donations are much appreciated by those we help.

WEBhttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-29/badami-our-selective-compassion-has-come-undone/6431266

FRIDAY 8 MAY 2015

buddies bulletin

You can’t abuse human rights in defiance of international law and then criticise others

for doing the same. How did this weaken our ability to plead for mercy for our own citizens?

“Only a pathetically weak leader would execute the powerless to prove his strength.” That’s Fairfax journalist Peter Hartcher’s assessment of the cruel and inhumane way in which Jokowi put humanity and judicial rigour aside in the lead-up to the executions of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

He’s right. But substitute the words “people smuggler” for “drug smuggler” and ask yourself this: how is Indonesia’s unjust, hard-line, domestically focused mistreatment of foreigners any different to ours?

Australia too has refused to acknowledge the humanity of foreigners; Australia too has mistreated people in defiance of international law; Australia too

has defended its policies using hyperbolic language – all on the basis that punishing a few will save many more.

But will Jokowi’s actions stop drug smuggling any more than Australia’s mistreatment of refugees and their children will prevent people smuggling or stop people fleeing war and unrest? In the end, Indonesia isn’t the only country punishing the weak and the powerless for the sake of a weak and powerless leader’s grasp at popularity.

Something to remember is that you lose any claim to moral superiority if you only selectively choose to be compassionate. Human rights are universal, not optional. Many in Australia have criticised Indonesia for pleading clemency for its own condemned nationals overseas – but you can’t abuse human rights in defiance of international law and then criticise others for doing the same.Contributed by Quinn Kerr

Australian Andrew Chan (R) and Myuran Sukumaran (C) talks to their lawyer

The Bali 9: our selective

compassion has come undone

Sunil Badami The Drum

29 April 2015

what’s on

BUDDIES BULLETIN, 8 MAY 2015 • 2

For your DIARY... Tuesday 19 May, 4pm

Buddies Immigration Support Group meeting, 9 Gumtree Drive, Buderim

Sunday 24 May, 11amBuddies meeting, 24 King St, Buderim.

Chair person: Patrick Buick patrickbuick@squirrel.com.au 5471 6455Guest speaker: Garry Bradford - Recent visit to Thai-Burma border area

Monday 25 – Friday 29 MayDiversity Week, USC, Sippy Downs

Saturday 30 May, 1pmBuddies Variety Concert (see right)

Saturday 30 May, 6:45pmWomen UpFront Concert in Maleny, in support of Buddies

Thursday 11 June, 3pmLobby Group meeting, 32 Lorikeet Lane, Malenyaor@plumes.info 5494 2240

Sunday 14 June, 9am-5pmMDA Welcome Fest, free eventAnnerley Soccer Club fields, Brisbane

Saturday 20 JuneWorld Refugee Day Rally, Brisbane

Sunday 28 June, 11amBuddies meeting, 24 King St, Buderim

Sunday 19 – Friday 24 JulyLearn English Holiday programkaylaszumer@gmail.com 5476 8910

OUR CONCERT IN KAWANA IS SHAPING UP TO BE A MEMORABLE MUSICAL EXPERIENCE!Thank you to the group of Buddies who are assisting with the planning of this event and to the Buddies who have already volunteered to help on the day. More offers of help however are still needed. Please choose from the following ways you can assist:

– Bring a plate of sweet and/or savoury food for afternoon tea.

– Serve food and drink to patrons.– Set up and pack down hall.– Meet and greet.– Take door fees and raffle ticket money.– Donate raffle prizes (vouchers, wine, chocolates

etc).– Video the show.

Please contact Carmel Dobson with your offers of help (including the food you can bring) at cmaryd@hotmail.com 0457 140 696.

Let’s all pull together and ensure this concert is a huge success! Flyers and invitations will be sent out in a Bulletin Extra shortly.

– Much thanks, Carmel Dobson

WOMEN UPFRONT CONCERTWomen UpFront in Maleny are hosting a concert on Saturday 30 May. They are donating most of the proceeds to Buddies. The event includes the Scattered People’s choir and the Sylph Circus performing a ‘refugee story’.

The concert will commence at 6.45pm, which will allow people to attend the Buddies variety concert at Kawana in the afternoon as well.

A FANTASTIC DAY OF ENTERTAINMENT AND SUPPORTING REFUGEES!

THIS WEEK’S ATTACHMENT– Finance Report (April)

MAL BROUGH’S LISTENING POSTSIn his newsletter, federal member for Fisher Mal Brough advises that he will be holding Listening Posts around the electorate ‘where you can come and ask questions, provide feedback or just have a chat’. Two upcoming Posts are scheduled for:

• Wednesday 20 May – Lomond Crescent, Bellvista, Caloundra West – 2.30 to 3.30pm

• Saturday 23 May – Goonawarra Drive, Mooloolaba – 10.00 to 11.00am

WEBhttps://www.facebook.com/MalBroughMPContributed by Terry Boyce

KNITTERS FOR USC DIVERSITY WEEKThe University of the Sunshine Coast will be participating in ‘Diversity Week’, Monday 35–Friday 29 April. A social action group at the University called ‘CRASI’ (Creative Arts and Social

Issues) will be promoting the ‘Teddy Bears Without Borders Project’ as one of the activities and at the same time promoting the work of Buddies.

If you can come and knit a teddy (or scarf) at CRASI’s marquee on any day during Diversity Week (excluding Tuesday 26th which is National Sorry Day) between the hours of 11am and 2pm, please contact Natalie Alexander natchick31@hotmail.com 5475 4536, 0422 374 400.

WEBhttps://teddybearswithoutborders.wordpress.com

WEBhttps://www.facebook.com/teddybearswithoutborders

HOMESTAY HOSTS FOR NEXT LEARN ENGLISH HOLIDAYProposed date 19 – 24 JulyIf you would like to host an asylum seeker from Brisbane, please contact Kayla on kaylaszumer@gamil.com 5476 8910, 0427 380 235

BUDDIES BULLETIN, 8 MAY 2015 • 3

MDA’S DONATE-A-RIDE CAMPAIGNAims to raise $50,000 to cover transport costs for clients who continue to volunteer their time and skills across Brisbane. Donations over $2 tax deductible.

WEBhttps://mdaltd.org.au/donate-a-ride

LETTER TO SEND: THIS BILL COULD KILLGetUp!, 230 April 2015They’re the laws that will allow security guards to “beat asylum seekers to death”, according to a former Victorian Supreme Court judge.

The Maintaining the Good Order of Immigration Detention Facilities Bill will give broad powers to security guards, allowing them to use force against asylum seekers being held in detention centres. The bill lacks sufficient safeguards to ensure the powers are used responsibly and will place asylum seekers in detention at further risk of harm.

In a couple of week’s time the Senate Committee is expected to hand down their report on the legislation, after which it’ll likely be put to a vote. We cannot allow this dangerous bill to pass.

WRITE TO YOUR LABOR SENATOR CALLING ON THEM TO VOTE AGAINST THE BILL.WEBhttps://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/refugees/force-bill/this-bill-could-kill?t=OBjROINVnContributed by Ted Webber

Artist takes his poster project supporting asylum seekers across the countryJason Om, ABC News Online 5 May 2015Peter Drew has embarked on a three-month road trip around Australia, putting up 1,000 posters declaring “Real Australians Say Welcome”.

“It is slightly tongue-in-cheek. I think what is a real Australian is completely up for discussion,” Mr Drew told Lateline. He said the message was inspired by the second verse of the Australian anthem: “With courage let us all combine to Advance Australia Fair.”

“That’s what I mean [by] being a real Australian, is having that courage,” Mr Drew said.

WEBhttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-05/artist-takes-real-australians-say-welcome-poster-project-on-road/6446702Contributed by Diana Woolley

FRUIT TO PICK AND SELL

New Buddies member Scott Grimmett has a Buderim orchard that is under-utilised. Over the next few months avocados and custard apples will be there for harvesting . Scott is offering interested refugee friends the right to harvest

and sell this fruit either for themselves or for Buddies.

This project would also benefit from the assistance of someone with experience in farmers markets.

For further information, please contact Scott at buddies@scottgrimmett.id.au 0427 364 802.

Greece throws open immigration detention centresDarren Mara SBS News Online, 17 April 2015Greece’s left-wing government, elected in January, is releasing detainees from the centres and allowing them to move around freely. The government says they were being held in horrendous conditions and their continued incarceration is unaffordable.

Greece has seen a huge increase in the number of people trying to enter the EU in boats from Africa. Many also enter Greece on land via its porous eastern borderlands. Those detected by authorities are usually locked up in one of seven detention centres. Around 3,500 people are in detention, including children.

WEBhttp://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/04/17/greece-throws-open-immigration-detention-centres

Sicilians extend hand to thousands of migrant childrenSean O’Neill, Al Jazeera, 19 April 2015According to AccoglieRete, an organisation founded in 2013 to help unaccompanied minors arriving here, 70,000 migrants landed last year on the southwestern shores of Sicily near the city of Siracusa.

In these difficult times, however, some Sicilians have stepped forward out of a sense of civic duty to fill in where the state has proved unprepared.

“We are the door of Europe and the government looks at the problem in a general way, but it doesn’t care about the individual,” said Carla Trommino, 38, an immigration lawyer who cancelled plans to move to London and in July 2013 helped co-found AccoglieRete, which works on multiple fronts.

WEBhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/04/sicilians-extend-hand-thousands-migrant-children-150415120442796.htmlContributed by Freddie Steen

Using the Mediterranean migrant crisis to score political points

Paul Farrell The Guardian, 6 May 2015Tony Abbott is behaving like a “snake-oil merchant” by using the crisis in the Mediterranean to score political points in Australia, Labor’s immigration spokesman Richard Marles has said.

The PM said there had been discussions with European officials when asked whether Europe had sought any advice on how

to respond to the migration flows. But a European Commission spokeswoman denied there had been any official contact and said the “Australian model can never be a model for us”, because the policy involved the refoulement of people who could be genuine refugees.

WEBhttp://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/may/06/abbott-accused-of-using-mediterranean-migrant-crisis-to-score-political-points

A punitive approach will lead Europe to unrest and corruptionAntony Loewenstein The Guardian, 4 May 2015Surely bombing yet another Muslim country is a mistake. But that’s exactly what Italian foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni has called for – attacks on Islamic State (Isis) positions in Libya to stem the flow of refugees streaming into Europe.

Calls for tough action, like Gentiloni’s, are growing in response to refugees drowning in the Mediterranean Ocean. Last year nearly 5,000 men, women and children perished at sea. This year at least 1,600 people have already died.

The desire to shut the door to Europe entirely is perhaps understandable, but it’s the wrong decision.

WEBhttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/04/a-punitive-approach-to-refugees-will-lead-europe-to-unrest-and-corruption

Mediterranean crisis

BUDDIES BULLETIN, 8 MAY 2015 • 4

Unsurprisingly, refugees refuse to resettle in CambodiaHelen Regan Time Magazine USA, 5 May 2015Many refugees have fled poor countries with a record of human-rights abuses, and have no interest in being resettled in another one.

Some 750 asylum seekers living on Nauru face an impossible choice. They can stay there in squalid conditions. Or they can be resettled, of all places, in impoverished Cambodia — a country with a long record of human-rights abuses, where refugees are discriminated against and the chances of finding work are slim.

WEBhttp://time.com/3829148/australia-nauru-refugees-asylum-seekers-resettle-cambodia-bribes

Nauru Facebook ban requested by Australian Government’

Suzie Raines ABC News Online, 5 May 2015Nauru opposition MP Matthew Batsiua said Facebook users in Nauru discovered on Thursday they had been denied access to the social media site. He said it was an attempt by the Nauru government to prevent free speech

and curb any criticism it faces.

Pamela Curr from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said that one of her contacts within the Nauruan community told her the Australian Government was behind the ban. “My contacts are telling me that this was done at the request of the Australian Government,” Ms Curr told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat program.

“They said that the Australian Government is anxious to get a group of people going to Cambodia and they are concerned that the people on Nauru are in contact with advocates in Australia who they believe are talking them out of the Cambodian option.”

WEBhttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-05/refugee-advocates-claim-nauru-facebook-ban-requested-australia/6444506

SATIRE: Migrants skilled at having money to be awarded visasThe Backburner, 4 May 2015

The Productivity Commission has announced an investigation that could see entry to Australia awarded to applicants who are the most skilled at having money, saving the government millions in processing costs. Under the current system visas are allocated based on workforce skills, family

connections and other criteria, rather than auctioned off to the highest bidder like second-hand car parts.

“Australia does have a skills shortage, in that too many of our current citizens are unskilled at having large amounts of money,” said libertarian Senator David Leyonhjelm. The senator has been a long-time supporter of selling the sacred privilege of Australian citizenship, but admits he’s disappointed that the proposed changes don’t go far enough.

WEBhttp://www.sbs.com.au/comedy/article/2015/05/04/migrants-skilled-having-money-be-awarded-visas

Rangitiki – a migrant’s storyRangitiki is a post-war immigrant song by The Goodwills, Maleny duo Bob and Laurel Wilson, based on the adventures of Bob’s family as they travel from Scotland to Wellington in 1955. The song also examines Australia’s current asylum seeker policies and asks, if it was OK then, why is it not OK now?

Bob has written on this subject several times in his weekly column/blog, Friday on My Mind. “This country was founded on the backs of hard-working immigrants,” he said. “It just seems selfish and unfair to reject and punish desperate people who have no alternative.”

WEBhttps://youtu.be/idnXHKWl01Ahttp://bobwords.com.au/rangitiki-migrants-story/

BUDDIES BULLETIN, 8 MAY 2015 • 5

VIDEO

BUDDIES BULLETIN, 8 MAY 2015 • 6

Minutes of Buddies Meeting, 26 April 2015Chairperson: John Ennis, note-taker: Margaret Landbeck. Apologies: Audrey Raymond, Terry Boyce, Stephanie Akers, Jean Carroll, Pat Isaacs, Penny Rivlin, Brenda Smith

Guest speaker: Liam Mayo from MDALiam spoke warmly of the rewarding relationship between MDA and Buddies. He outlined some of the uses to which our funds are put, including supporting a talented soccer player and assisting another to gain his SLC bronze medallion. Most of the money assists people with public transport costs. Liam also outlined the progress of the Buddies scholarship fund designed to help clients participate in accredited training programmes.

Young Buddies: Quinn KerrAmnesty forum to be held at USC. Quinn to speak.

Immigration support group: Fergus FitzGeraldCurrently supporting 15 asylum seekers from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Sudan. Those who arrived after September 2102 don’t have government-funded lawyers. Buddies is able assist them in their preparation of protection visa applications through the engagement of lawyer and registered migration agent Chilemwa Nkawane-Poole. Cost is approximately $3000 per applicant. Buddies has set aside a significant amount from our fundraising efforts to cover some of this cost.All asylum seekers’ departmental files have been obtained under FOI and initial interviews undertaken.

Finance report: Fergus – See attachmentLobby group: Bronwyn BellCurrent letters include Lindel Greggery’s letter to the SCD concerning the matter of skilled migration to Australia and challenging the notion that refugees take Australian jobs. Penny Rivlin has written letters to Julie Bishop and Malcolm Turnbull regarding lack of journalistic access to detention centres.Suggestions to raise awareness – connect more with community groups, create a u-tube video and connect with community radio stations.

Contact with Peter Dutton: Allan Spierings Allan and Peter Dutton were both police officers together in Townsville in the late 80s. Since Dutton has recently visited the Buderim Men’s Shed, Allan suggested an invitation to a Buddies meeting or an appointment for himself and a couple of other Buddies to meet in his electoral office in Brisbane.

Learn English Holiday program: Kayla SzumerIn its 4th year. It might not be possible to hold an LEH in July as planned unless Kayla receives more offers to host. Another LEH is also planned for October.

USC/Buddies picnic: BronwynJointly hosted by Buddies and USC Health Science

students on Thursday 7 May in Tanawha. All Buddies and asylum seeker friends invited.

Concert in Maleny: Fergus To be held by ‘Women Up Front’, part proceeds to Buddies. (see page 2)

Fund raising variety concert: Carmel Dobson Organization progressing well. (see page 2)

USC Diversity Week: Natalie Alexander (see page 3).

Incorporation working group report: FergusThe results from the recent vote on whether Buddies should become incorporated were quite conclusive. 67 people voted (out of 871 members) with a clear majority (more than 90%) supporting the formation of a company limited by guarantee. A working group has been established, comprising Terry Boyce, Garry Bates, Audrey Raymond, Margaret Landbeck, John Ennis and Fergus FitzGerald. Fergus thanked Quinn and Libby for conducting the on-line voting.Key tasks are reservation of the proposed name of the company (Buddies Refugee Support Group Ltd); articulation of the objectives of Buddies; preparation of a constitution; application as a company under the Corporations Act; registration under the Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission; and possible registration as a charity with tax deductible status for donations. The objective is to have the company established by 1 July. Further specific proposals will be presented at next month’s meeting, including selecting initial directors, membership etc.

News of refugee friends: Rada van der Werff Petition on Change.org concerning a gentleman Rada met at BITA (see Bulletin 1 May). Rada also read a passage on Anzac Day written by a young man just transferred from BITA to Darwin and living in fear of being sent to Manus (to be published in Bulletin 15 May).

Volunteer work of refugees and asylum seekers: Linda Dennis Linda, a Migrant Social Worker and Buddies member spoke about the importance of getting those who supervise refugees and asylum seekers in voluntary work to supply them with a reference as to their work, reliability and skills gained as this would help in the letters of support they need when being assessed.

Name tags: Dee Williams Dee asked that people who have ordered and paid for name badges please collect them!

Next community concert: Kendall Snowden To be held Sunday 24 May. Buddies are asked to provide plates of slices for the afternoon tea as this is a good fund raiser. Please contact Kendall.

Next Buddies meetingSunday 24 May, chairperson: Patrick Buick, note-taker: Darcy Buick