Not holding my breath Daniel Andrews

Some members of the Warrnambool RAR group were waxing lyrical about Daniel Andrews' letter offering sanctuary to the Nauru refugees. So I emailed them.

I wasn't going to reply to this but just couldn't help myself.

All very well for Daniel Andrews to write a letter to the PM....but would he have written this letter if a Labor PM was in power? I think not! Labor refugee policy is equally as cruel as Liberal policy and even more so, considering the fact that Labor was the very party that actually introduced the cruelest refugee policies in the world! Why did Daniel Andrews choose to belong to a party with such cruel policies? How is he going to change them and why has he been silent 'til now? Pfffttt! Political maneuverings and machinations is all.

Oh, I know Daniel Andrews is in the State ALP and it is a little different from the Federal ALP, however he is still a part of the Labor Party and as such supports Labor Party policy. Just a few days ago, Federal Labor voted with the Liberals to deny amnesty for the very people Daniel Andrews was offering santuary. Why didn't he speak out then?
http://mobile.abc.net.au/…/coalition,-labor-unite-t…/7140948

Nevertheless, It would be a great thing for those 267 asylum seekers if the PM were to take Daniel Andrews up on his offer!  http://greensmps.org.au/content/media-releases/greens-urge-pm-accept-victorian-offer-let-asylum-seekers-stay

But what about all the other innocent children in detention? What about all the other men, women and children living in disgusting Australian off-shore detention camps? This is our country and WE are all complicit in how they are treated but in my opinion, those who are members and supporters of the Liberal and Labor parties are much more complicit. Labor and Liberal have been treating asylum seekers cruelly for sixteen years and supporters have had plenty of time to force their parties to change their policies or to change ranks.

For about five years I worked in a group that had formed in Warrnambool after the Tampa crisis. It was called called South West Action for Refugees. My family accommodated refugees...both in our home and in our flat in Melbourne. I fought long and hard for individuals who were going to be sent back to what they believed and what probably would have been... certain death.

Many in our group burnt out....and were emotionally scarred by their experiences trying to help refugees who were being treated so cruelly first by the Labor government and then the Liberal government.

Then we were encouraged by Labor election promises and not exactly in this precise order but more or less when Labor won governmentt we believed they would release refugees from detention and close down the refugee concentration camps.

But when Labor won government in 2007, the situation became even worse than it had been when SWAR had formed during the Tampa crisis. It all went to hell for refugees. We were utterly grief stricken and it was then I realized how completely dependent we were on the government of the day; that all our hard campaigning and good community work was incredibly tenuous because it could all be swept away in an instant by one Prime Ministerial signature. One sweep of the pen can destroy years of work and recreate a living hell for a whole section of humanity.

This was Rudd's refugee deterrent policy and it looked nothing like his election promises.

SO I decided to try to get the right people into government, so they could enact good human rights laws, good environmental laws, good grass roots democracy procedures and ensure peace and non- violence. I immediately joined the GREENS and have been campaigning for them ever since 2007.

http://greens.org.au/news/sa/plan-change

If Daniel Andrews were not in the Labor party, I might take his offer seriously. For the sake of those desperate 267 asylum seekers, I do hope the PM will accept his gesture... and then it would give me much pleasure to see Mr. Andrews faint and to witness the look of awkward discomfort on Bill Shorten's pathetic little face. 

http://greensmps.org.au/content/media-releases/greens-urge-pm-accept-victorian-offer-let-asylum-seekers-stay

Needless to say, I won't be holding my breath.