Letter to Luke Hartsuyker 2 November 2016 re John Morse letter below

2nd November 2016

Dear Mr Hartsuyker,

I recently read John Morse's letter to you, published in the Bellingen Courier Sun. John clearly worked hard over many years, serving the Australian community as the CEO of Tourism Australia. Like so many of us, he is horrified and deeply ashamed of our government's cruel and inhumane policy towards asylum seekers languishing without hope on Nauru and Manus.  That he is should be so moved by the government's asylum policy to decide to return his Australia Medal speaks volumes. I salute him for his courageous and principled stance.

Could this finally be a wakeup call for you, our elected representative, to acknowledge that the current policy is deliberately cruel and unsustainable? Rather than support the latest cruel twist in government policy, aimed at permanently banning those who arrived by boat to indefinite banishment from our shores, will you now show some humanity and stand with those of us who utterly reject the connection that the government continues to falsely make between drowning at sea and the indefinite detention of innocent people who have a right to seek our protection? 

Most voters simply don't buy that argument. A clear majority of Australians now believe that the asylum seekers and refugees currently on Nauru and Manus should be brought to Australia. It is plainly wrong, and morally reprehensible, to use these people as a means to deter others from making the perilous journey across the sea. There are better, more humane and lawful ways to deal with the problem.

Like John Morse AM, in the face of this cruelty and inhumanity, deliberately inflicted by the government on innocent people, I feel ashamed to call myself Australian.

                                                                                                            Yours sincerely,

                                                                                                             Mike Griffin