Download a .pdf of this newsletter
Alienating Indonesia to deter refugees?
Bruce Duncan
This year of grace, 2014, has begun with some startlingly ungracious omens. Two are especially distressing: the appalling treatment of asylum seekers who have knocked on our door in search of refuge and protection; and the way the Abbott government has damaged relations with Indonesia.The veil of secrecy enveloping the treatment of asylum seekers in indefinite detention camps on Christmas Island, and even more disturbingly on Nauru and Manus Island, is deeply troubling, as Fr Edmond Nixon points out in his parish bulletin in North Perth. Read Bruce’s editorial in full.
Photo Welcome asylum seekers & refugees – Refugee Action protest 27 July 2013 Melbourne, by Takver, flickr cc.
Are disability pensions ‘unsustainable’?
Photo PMs XIII Coaching Clinic and Match, by Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade, flickr cc.
Major Jenny Begent joins SPC Board
Radio campaign to expose trafficking in labour
A major campaign is being run through ethnic media to reach people forced to work in Australia for little or no wages. The Radio Awareness Project campaign is funded by ACRATH (Australian Catholic Religious against Trafficking in Humans), and issues announcements in Vietnamese, Mandarin, Thai, Arabic, Filipino, and Spanish. The campaign is supported by the Australian Federal Police, with texts by Anti-Slavery Australia (part-funded by the Australian Government). Read this article in full.
Photo Christine Carolyn
Social Policy Connections featured videos
Click HERE to view SPC videos