GOING INTO BAT FOR REFUGEES Public forum: 7.30-9pm, Wednesday September 17, St Kilda Town Hall Cricketer Ian Chappell will go into bat for refugees at a public meeting organised by A Just Australia at St Kilda Town Hall, 7.30-9pm, Wednesday September 17. Joining him are broadcaster and columnist Phillip Adams, author Hanifa Deen and national director of A Just Australia, Howard Glenn and Port Phillip deputy mayor, David Brand. The evening will also include musical performances.
Ian Chappell will spend the afternoon handing out flyers and talking to people in Acland Street. "I'm not a politician," said the former Australian captain whose activism on refugees was triggered by his anger over the Tampa crisis in August 2001. But when Mr Chappell saw young people detained behind barbed wire, "I thought to myself there has to be a helluva cost to the country, not only keeping them in detention but then the ongoing cost to their health. If the worst happened, that a child of mine was forced out of this country and went somewhere else ... would I want her treated in this fashion?" Mr Chappell's 'conversion' to the refugee cause was the subject of an episode of Australian Story, called "The Unusual Suspect" broadcast on ABC TV on July 14. Cr Brand said that the City of Port Phillip has waived hall hire fees for the forum. "The City of Port Phillip is delighted to be supporting this forum about the refugee crisis. Some of the first Tampa refugees arrived from the Pacific today but that doesn't mean our refugee policy still isn't a national - and international - disgrace. Many people in this community started life as 'reffos' in the aftermath of World War 11. Many were Jews who survived the Holocaust, Hitler's 'final solution'. They arrived at Station Pier and stayed. "Everyone now thinks the turning back of boatloads of Jewish refugees from England and the USA in the late thirties was a travesty but our wealthy nation has done the same to successive boatloads of mostly Muslim refugees and adopted the so-called 'Pacific solution'. Ian Chappell was urged to do something when his wife reminded him that bad things happen when good people do nothing. This forum allows the whole community to say to the Australian Government that we categorically reject the current refugee policy, that it does not act in our name. History will prove us right, though that is cold comfort to the thousands of refugees who remain incarcerated either in outback detention camps or in the Pacific," he said. Last May, the City of Port Phillip hosted the Tampa Tribute to honour Captain Rinnan on his last voyage. Hanifa Deen is an award winning Australian author who writes narrative non-fiction. She is also a human rights activist and social commentator. She has held a number of high profile positions including: Deputy Commissioner of the Multicultural and Ethnic Affairs Commission of WA; Director on the Board of Directors of SBS; and Hearing Commissioner with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.20 She now works as a full-time writer and is an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow with the Department of Social Sciences at Curtin. Her first book, Caravanserai: A Journey Among Australian Muslims, (Allen & Unwin) won a NSW Premier's Literary Award in 1996 and judges described Caravanserai '...as an outstanding contribution to Australian literature.'20 A completely revised and was released in May this year, published by Fremantle Arts Centre Press. Broken Bangles, her best-selling book on the lives of women in Pakistan and Bangladesh, published by Transworld, was short-listed in 1998 for the WA Premier's Literary Award. A second edition was released in India by Penguin-India publishers in 2000. Her most recent book is: A Cold Red Carpet: The Strange Journey of Taslima Nasreen. All speakers are available for interview. For more information about A Just Australia, go to: <http://www.justrefugeeprograms.com.au/news/Newsframeset.htm> Enquiries: After hours Carmel Shute Liz Johnstone20 Media Officer Mayor Tel: 03 9209 6163 Fax: 03 9525 4640 Tel: 03 9531 7358 Mobile: 0412 569 356 Mobile: 0412 135 350 Council webpage: www.portphillip.vic.gov.au Carmel Shute Council Media Officer City of Port Phillip Ph: 03 9209 6163 Fax: 03 9525 4640 Mob: 0412 569 356 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
