An open letter to the Prime Minister of New Zealand. Join in: to sign the letter, email here, to show your support
6 November 2017
Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern Prime Minister Private Bag 18888 Parliament Buildings Wellington 6160 New Zealand
Dear Prime Minister
Warm congratulations on your election as New Zealand’s new Prime Minister.
We are writing to call upon the New Zealand Government to intervene in the entirely preventable humanitarian disaster unfolding on Manus Island.
We applaud your Government for renewing New Zealand’s previous offer to resettle 150 refugees from Manus Island and Nauru. We are aware that on Sunday the Australian Prime Minister, Mr Turnbull, refused your renewed offer at this stage. This is not acceptable. The men who have languished in Papua New Guinea for over four years need urgent access to a durable solution.
We urge you to actively pursue negotiations with the Papua New Guinean Government and the UNHCR Regional Representative to resettle as many of the men from Manus Island as soon as possible.
We acknowledge, with regret, the unfortunate necessity of writing to you to request that New Zealand step in to resolve this crisis when it is so clearly an Australian responsibility. We believe, however, that the moral leadership New Zealand can take on this issue will increase the pressure on the Australian Government to work with resettlement countries to resolve the current crisis. We will do all in our power to assist you.
In the spirit of international cooperation and humanity, thank you for considering this letter.
Yours sincerely
Paul Barratt AO Former Secretary, Department of Defence
Dr Margaret Beavis MBBS FRACGP MPH Immediate Past President, Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia)
Dr Alison Broinowski Writer and former Australian diplomat
Scott Cosgriff Chair, National Committee, Australian Lawyers for Human Rights
John Falzon (TBC) CEO, National Council, St Vincent de Paul Society
Andrew Farran International lawyer
Michael Hamel-Green Emeritus Professor, Victoria University Melbourne
Marion Le AM Registered Migration Agent; specialist in International Law and Refugee Resettlement
Rebecca Minty Human Rights lawyer
Kellie Tranter Lawyer and human rights activist
Dr Sue Wareham OAM President, Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia)
Matthew Zagor Associate Professor, Director of Law Reform and Social Justice, ANU College of Law
Julian Burnside AO QC Barrister
If they wont bring them here 🇦🇺please take them there 🇳🇿
I am so ashamed of the government of Australia. Their treatment of those seeking asylum will be remembered with revulsion and dismay. We are better than this.
Fully agree
We must do everything in our power to evacuate these men now. Whatever it takes.
I concur with everything in this letter.
Aust’n government has painted itself into a corner and sees humanitarian response as a backdown
Thank you
Thank you Jacinda Ardern,
for showing humanitarian leadership without delay for the men on Manus languishing in subhuman conditions inflicted by the Australian Government.
Please don’t allow Malcolm Turnbull’s belligerence against human rights principles for the incarcerated and legitimate asylum seekers bar you from your sustained efforts to deliver social justice for the men victimised by base political opportunism on the part of Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Dutton and the Liberal National Party Regime in Australia.
Please feel free to add Dan Bowles, Former Australian Geographic Cartographer.
Please help these people.
Paul Bauert OAM FRACP
Paediatrician Representative on AMA Federal Council
WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO AUST VALUES OF A FAIR GO FOR ALL
I am ashamed of the stance my adopted country has taken. I remember the refugees turned back before WW2 and what happened to them.
As a former Human Rights Commissioner in Victoria, the AHRC and in Western Australia and as a lawyer and an ordinary human being I ask the leader of the country I was born in, and love, to show the world what’s right
We ask you to continue efforts to rescue the refugees on Manus n Narua. Leave the Australian Government out of negotiations, as they’ve washed their hands of the issue.
Please consider this letter PM
Australian government has gone beyond what is humane, broken international human rights laws and inflicted brutality and torture on these men
If you are accepting names to add to this letter, feel free to add mine. I am a freelance writer. Our federal government’s actions in this situation are reprehensible and a form of torture. It demonstrates a disturbing willingness to allow or even cause serious physical harm, and death, for personal political gain.
Please help these poor asylum seekers. They are being treated like animals by our reprehensible Australian Govt.
Please do the right thing by our fellow human beings. Australia say they dont have any obligations by them. Nothing to stop NZ to come in and pick them up.
Thankyou Charlie
Thankyou for caring and understanding, our foreign minister disgrace thankyou looking above that
Mathew O’Shaughnessy
Taxation Analyst
NZ can do this. Australian govt will be out soon and the new Labor govt will support and applaud your moral leadership
Please add my name to this letter.
Dear Jacinda congratulations on your election win and Im sure you will make an amazing PM. If theres anything you can possibly do to help the poor neglected souls living in hell holes Manus n Narau would be an amazing thing. Sadly the Aust Govt have turned their backs on these human beings, as an Aust citizen Im saddened n ashamed of their cruel behaviour. Thankyou for listening n I wish you my very best Jacinda….Anne
Please help to solve this humanitarian crisis. Australian Government is headed for the Hague. Refugees will continue to be tortured and many more will die.
Hello dear prime minister of New Zealand. I hope you get chance to read my comment. I’m currently living in hell Nauru prison. I’m so sick and tired after more than 4 years. Australian government uses us as political hostage.Im begging you to help us and set us free from this hell. Our boatmates have been living free for more than three years.this is injustice that Australian government betrayed us. All we are asking freedom and I promised I will never try to travel to Australia if I get accepted by New Zealand.please help us dear prime minister of New Zealand.🙏🏼
This is an outrageous crisis that has to end immediately. Clear human rights violation…
Please continue to seek a solution to this issue. Once again show us Aussies how to be a leader as your nation was with Marriage equality
Totally agree, We all are responsible to prevent a human crisis at Manus Islan
Please help these people
I think the reason Turnbull said no is if they are let into NZ, they can more easily come to Australia.
Simple solution: NZ to offer to take them with a guarantee that they not be granted Australian visas to visit Australia.
What of those going to the USA? Can they come here from there? Its probably the last place they want to visit now..
Agree
The refugees need your help. If you can find a way to give our political leaders a face saving solution it would be greatly appreciated.
My father was welcomed here after WW2, after being brought here as an internee from Singapore. We have lived a fortunate life. There is room in our hearts to welcome these refugees now, but our politicians are blinded by their self interest. Please help solve this impasse, as I am so ashamed of my country at present. No one is hearing their pleas.
Please add
Simon Sheldon Technical illustrator
I am so very pleased to see in a time of global political failings a small country doing more than most including the U.N. to stop suffering & persecution..thank you Madam PM
Please do not give up on your offer
Please continue to intervene, negotiate and add your respectful voice of protest towards preventing this human tragedy from unfolding. Those who continue to stand by and allow this atrocity are responsible for for a preventable loss of human lives.
It has all been said for me.
Dear Prime Minister Ardern, many Australian people have tried and just not been able to convince our government to show mercy towards the refugees on Manus Island and Nauru. Please put pressure on our Prime Minister and Immigration Minister to allow these refugees to either be moved to mainland Australia or to allow other countries to take them. These people have been incarcerated for a number of years now, and the lack of food and water is now killing them slowly. Help us to continue to pressure our government to act humanely. Thank you.
Please assist these unfortunate people who are being used as pawns by an Australian government of which I am ashamed.
Well said. It’s not enough to walk away from Turnbull’s repeated rejection of the offer by New Zealand. There are other avenues to manage the safe passage and settlement of the men of Manus in New Zealand . Surely the PNG Government can negotiate with PM Ardern
Thank you for your offer to assist the Refugees on Manus island. Please consider the avenues outlined I. The letter to resolve this crisis. Thank you.
Prime Minister Turnbull is not representing my feelings in this matter. These men are vulnerable humans who require compassion and someone willing to give them a chance at a safe, productive life. Please help them.
We despair at the lack of basic compassion demonstrated by wealthy leaders. As many of them claim to be christian – have they read the parable of the Good Samaritan? If so, which person depicted do they think they are?
Please help intervene somehow, there must be other ways, there are always other ways.
Thank you for your help but you must keep going.
We can not stop until these men have their freedom, they have a right to their freedom and the people have a right to give it to them.
A humanitarian response is desperately needed for those languishing in this dreadful place.
Some of these men are sick. Some will start to die soon.
Please do what you can to convince the Australian Federal Government to act in a humane manner.
Please help these people New Zealand, I am beyond ashamed of our repulsive, morally depraved Australian Government and the opposition. What is happening to these innocent men on Manus and Nauru is in humane and horrific.
There was a time Australia was known as a compassionate nation. I was proud to be Australian. These things are no longer true. Please New Zealand show the world what compassion & leadership look like & take these poor men from their prison.
By-pass the Australian government and deal with New Guinea directly, and please help these desperate people.
The ALP and the LNP in the Federal parliament in Canberra are in this together and someday they will all pay dearly for their actions and stand and face charges of gross human rights abuses. What goes around comes around!
If the Govt. of N.Z. can help then they should bypass the cruel , evil and morally bankrupt Australian government and rescue these human beings from a fate worse than death.
In 1945 the Red army didn’t ask permission from Poland to liberate the surviving people in the Auschwitz death camp. This is a basic matter of right and wrong. Something must be done!!!
Great initiative! I will add my name too!
Please add my name.
As an Australian I am sad that we have not fulfilled our responsibility.however under the current govt withthisnot happen. And doing support this request. Sincerely
Ruth
Yes Hon PM of NZ Hacinta Ardern,
I urge you as well, please help us resolve the untenable suffering of these refugee men languishing on Manus Island, stranded and left high and dry without food, water or medicine….in my name this is totally unacceptable by our Australian Government, please help us to resolve this ASAP and resettle these men in New Zealand….please, please I implore you. Thank you for your care, concern and consideration.
Regards
Janine Griffiths
Eudlo Qld 4554.
Please take as many of these men as you can. I am in utter despair at the government of Australia, who many years have had this hard hearted attiftude. Thank you for your renewal of the offer.
Yes, please negotiate with the PNG government. Our government has said the men are not Australia’s responsibility and clearly would rather see them die than do the right and proper thing. I for one, are very grateful for your offer. I know that the vast majority of Australians are good people who care about this dreadful treatment of refugees by our government .
Please help Jacinda
This is a disaster made by the Australian government and hopefully the New Zealand government can solve the problem.
By-pass Australia. It is acting outside international law, and is placing itself outside the realms of decency.
Dear Prime Minister Please don’t be wedged by this cruel Government, help these Refugees, they are being used as political footballs, that must be stopped immediately.
LNP have disgraced Australians and continue to do so. Our humanitarianism is in the gutter
As an Australian citizen I am appalled at the treatment of Manus and Nauru refugees and would urge you and your government to do all that you are able to assist these people in their desperate situation.
australian govt obstinately standing by and waiting for the inevitable tragedy which it will then blame on the asylum seekers themselves and the greens.
if any govt or international body can intervene to salvage this situation, now is the time.
Please help us to help these people
I endorse Mr Burnside’s letter
Please, Jacinda Ardern,I beg you to make a decision for humanity that will stand out,in the history of the world, as having been made for the sake of moral integrity rather than political expediency.
Please take the suffering men of Manus Island and give them the safe home to which they are entitled.
If you achieve nothing else in your Prime Ministership, you will go down as one of the greats.
Please Jacinda bypass our government and take these refugees
Thank you Julian Burnside for writing to the prime minister of New Zealand. Please consider this letter with all your power and human kindness. I am ashamed to be an Australian
Please help these men. Someone needs to stand and aid them.
For the sake of these people, I request you to overlook diplomatic niceties and act. You certainly have the goodwill and endorsement of the Australians who have signed this. Lives are truly at stake.
Thank you for your recent efforts in addressing this issue, Jacinta. I urge you to continue to facilitate rescuing those on Manus and Nauru, either directly with the PNG government or by further pressure in Australia.
Photo of foreign minister Julie Bishop at the races wearing a big big hat whilst a refugee is digging a hole looking for water sums up the inhumane government we have right now. They could not care less about their fellow man in helpless situations only when talking to the UN and feigning concern
Congratulations on your election win. Please bypass the Australian government and seek to help the poor people on Manus. Surely dealing with UNHCR will secure the safety of these people
Thank you for showing our nation how to behave like a civilised country. Bravo NZ!
Congratulations on your election. Having close ties with NZ as my mother was born there, I ask that you do everything in your power to free people on Manus by taking them in. Once our nations’ compassion would have been similar unfortunately now Australia’s is sorely and heinously lacking. I implore you to help.
As have others, I congratulate you on showing humanity in circumstances where it has been sorely lacking. The Australian regime of Malcolm Turnbull shames us all, and in particular, on this issue.
The regime has clearly abandoned their prisoners on Manus,leaving them to their fate, and so lacks standing to declare on how others should deal with them. I urge you to move quickly to rescue as many of Australia’s political prisoners on Manus as you can — ideally all of them — and to deal with them as human beings in New Zealand.
The situation is now urgent and you have it within your power to save lives. Should you take this course, those of us whose passion lies with the vulnerable will never forget that where Australia failed, New Zealand stepped up.
Warmest Regards
Congratulations on your election to be Prine Minister of NewZealabd. Please will you work with PNG government to enable refugees from Manus Island to live in your country. Australia appears to have no compassion or empathy. I am ashamed.
Dear Jacinda Ardern
Congratulations on your election win and on your decision to re-state your offer to make New Zealand home for 150 refugees. Given Mr Turnbull’s apalling decision I ask you to approach PNG direct, hopefully with UNHCR support. I ashamed to be an Australian citizen. Please help. Thank you.
And if Turnball so wishes their passports can be stamped as ‘invalid for Australia’ just to confirm the law as it now stands that ‘boat people’ will never be accepted into Australia.
Please help them, they are human beings and have the same needs as you and me. Can you imagine what it would be without a country or family?
I am so ashamed to be Australian, this country has deteriorated over the past few years and we do not welcome refugees to our shores any more!
You are right on the point: why bother about other human brings unless they represent the smallest 1%
But hang on: they have wide support. Support Australians who want to see boat people protected and treated decently
Please help these men it is urgent. Many of them require urgent medical trEtment and even that is being denied them even though there is. Medical team ready and waiting to fly to PNG.
Please don’t let Australla hide its shame from the world. Shine a light into this darkness and into the hearts, minds and souls of these men.
Give the refugees some dignity & hope
Peter Dutton and Prime Minister Turnbull insist that the Manus Island problem is PNG’s to deal with. Therefore, your government is within its rights to negotiate directly with them. We thank you for your generosity and compassion.
You are obviously a compassionate person. Please continue your pursuit of justice for these human beings…so glad to see a caring human in power…congratulations…
As an Australian I am ashamed and have been in despair over the predictable severe health outcomes for those imprisoned on Manus and Nauru. Intervention by the NZ government, as described in the above letter, would be so appreciated and would indeed be remembered as an act of “moral integrity.”
Please intervene in this appalling refugee situation on Manus Island and allow some of the men to transfer to New Zealand. Australia once was a humanitarian country where people such as these would be able to seek safety, but now they are being used as political pawns and they are desperate.
Please intervene in the crisis on Manus and convince the Australian government that Australians want refugees and asylum seekers welcomed into Australia, not tortured or left in limbo with no apparent future. They must go free.
NZ you have shown strength and compassion in your offer to rehome some of the refugees on Manus and Nauru. What is being done to these people by our government is abhorrent. Human beings should not be treated like this. Please help them.
Please Prime Minister have compassion for these human beings who are suffering on Manus Island can we all put ourselves in their shoes for even a minute thank you
Please help Australia. It is lacking an understanding of basic human rights.
Congratulations on your election. Please do all you can to free the poor souls imprisoned on Manus Island and settle them in your wonderful country. Our current government in Australia doesn’t know how to meet its obligations to refugees and instead is leaving them to rot. Show them what real compassion looks like.
I applaud your initiative in offering a humanitarian solution in this crisis caused by inhumane government policy.
Congratulations on your election win. As my country is sadly bereft of humanitarian leadership, a source of national shame, I hope that you will be able to bypass them and help by providing asylum for legitimate refugees on Manus Island. Thank you.
Dear Ms Jacinda Ardern,
Please step up and intervene directly with the PNG government; let history see a woman who demonstrated leadership and
moral integrity to find a humane solution, in contrast to our politicians this side of the ditch who it seems such an outcome is beyond them.
Please deal independently with PNG to save these people before Turnbull and Dutton kill them to prove a point.
Congratulations on your election win. As a close neighbour of Australia i ask that if at all possible, please do what ever it takes to accomodate/ take in / accept these Refugees that are on Manus Island. I am, as is most Australians quite disappointed with our Government. To let people be displaced and be treated like animals is a blight on this Country Now and forever more ! We are supposed to be the “Lucky Country” but I am afraid to say we are a run by a breed of sadistic schadenfruedes that bring shame on us all. Please be the beacon for empathy & compassion.
Best Wishes and Kind Regards
Please be on the right side of history. PM, provide them with safety and humanity.
Congratulations on your election win.
Dealing with PNG directly seems the only possibility now that Australia’s PM has proven incapable of saving these people from further tragedy.
Well said. Thank you.
Dear Jacinda,
Please negotiate directly with PNG as requested in the letter signed by eminent Australian citizens,
NZ with your leadership is to be congratulated for your offer to take 150 refugees from Manus Island. I am disappointed and distressed that Australia did not take up your offer. If there is another way to make your offer a reality I would applaud your action.
New Zealand is to be applauded for its humanity at this awful time.
I am an expatriate Australian living in Europe and our reputation as a friendly laid back society has been shredded in recent years. I find myself having to explain that not all Australians are so inhumane.
New Zealand on the other hand seems a beacon of enlightenment. Please continue to believe in your policies of decency and courage.
Have been following your short term in government. One thing that is outstanding is your basic right for equality for all.
The Australian government is not up to your principled high standard. Please just work directly with PNG and help some of the refugees that Australia is torturing.
Prime Minister of NZ, Turnbull and Dutton have backed themselves into a corner or unacceptable inhumanity. Australia needs an intervention to save the precious lives of the 600 men on Manus. You can be the solution that saves their lives. Please negotiate with PNG and take as many men as possible. I am prepared to come and assist with their resettlement and I’m sure others in Australia would too.
NZ & PNG should not bow down to $$aid and $trade. Your independence makes you more regionally significant, not less.
Please see it in your heart to show compassion for the men on Manus.
PM of New Zealand
I sincerely hope there is a way of negotiating directly with PNG over your offer to accept 150 refugees on Manus Island. The humanitarian crisis currently experienced by the men on Manus is not sustainable – they have no running water, electricity or food and they fear for their safety if they are forced to relocate to other parts of Manus. PM Turnball and Min Dutton have demonstrated a complet lack of humanity and moral compass by not agreeing to accept your offer to take 150 of the refugees – I am saddened and appalled by this inhumane policy, regards Lesley
Congratulations on ur election success.It is my understanding that all these men have refugee status.However after being dealt with rigorously by the bureaucratic system, our failing inhumane Turnbull and Dutton have deserted them.So could your please communicate with the PNG gov’t now and attempt to offer a dignified humanitarian solution to this appalling shameful inhumanitarian situation.
Thank you for showing your citizens humanity to those across the ditch. Please do whatever it takes to save those souls on manus. We can depend on new zealand to show the world how to stand up for human rights. Unfortunately the aussie leadership cant hold a candle to your sense of purpose and decency. Please save them on manus Jacinta
These men are refugees. They deserve our compassion. Please negotiate with PNG to allow them access to NZ.
Every day this goes on brings deep hurt to so many. Lives shouldn’t be so cheap and our government shouldn’t be so mean. New Zealand has a heart and now needs a means to save these poor people. Please NZ, do what you can to offer hope and an opportunity for these brave people.
Please show the leadership and respect for people who have fled war and destruction. It is a tragedy that Australia has abrogated its responsibilities. Please fill the vacuum and you will be on the right side of history and your conscience. There is more love in the world than hate but we need you to help show that this is the case.
I support this open letter. I am deeply embarrassed by our government. I hope we have a humane resolution soon.
‘Not in my name’
I’m ashamed to be Australian
Newly elected – our sincere congratulations to you – yet already we hold you in great esteem for your courageous offer, integrity and genuine empathy.
Time is of the essence as one of these days men will succumb at Manus! The situation is very critical.
Please negotiate the release of all refugees with PNG. They are mainly used as political fodder by our Australian government.
With sincere thanks.
Congratulations on your election. I really appreciate your offer to take 150 Manus refugees. Now that Dutton and Turnbull have decided that they are not responsible for the refugees, you are free to deal with PNG directly. Please save as many lives as you can, the brave Manus guys will be great citizens of NZ.
Your leadership and humanitarian outlook give hope to all of us who despair over the secrecy and callousness that characterises Australia’s refugee policies. Please help and give some hope to the unfortunate souls stranded in limbo on Manus and Nauru.
Congratulations Prime Minister, and thank you for your compassion for the less fortunate members of world. You are that shining light. That one shining light we can see in an ocean of cruelty. You’re simply the best.
I’m Australian and I support this open letter.
On behalf of those on Manus , thankyou for your offer.
I’m embarrassed by our governments policies and treatment of these poor traumatised people.
Congratulations Prime Minister – Thank you for your kind and generous offer and showing compassion towards the refugees currently languishing in despair on Manus Island. Prime Minister Turnbull & Minister Peter Dutton’s family dogs would have been treated better over the past 4 years than these refugees. These refugees still had faith in the Australian Government that they would be relocated to a safe place after their years of torment, but that was not the case, the Australian Government cut off their water, food, electricity, security & medical assistance on Manus and now the situation is dire. The Australian & PNG Governments won’t allow anyone to help these refugees with food, water, security or medical assistance, so as I understand the Australian Government are responsible for any refugee deaths from this point on, as the Australian Government placed these refugees on Manus and cannot leave them there knowing they have no way to make a living to support themselves for the future, especially when PNG is not a safe place for these refugees to settle. Our Government claim they have saved lives by stopping the boats & drownings at sea but I’m not sure which is worse, drowning at sea quickly or dying slowly on Manus of starvation and disease after 4 long years of torment while waiting for relocation. This is now Australia’s shame forever. Please do whatever you can to assist these refugees. Thank you.
Please lead in a compassionate solution as tragically our govt is determined to follow a cruel and inhuman path
It sometimes takes strength and courage to stand up for what is right … and what Australia is doing is very wrong … thank you NZ
Timothy F Deane.
Thank you Mr Julian Burnside, and others, for being our conscience. I’m ashamed I need the reminder.
Congratulations on your election to PM. Australia and it’s government can learn a lot from you about leadership. I support and concur with the content of the above letter noting that it is not your responsibility. Soon it may be too late for these long suffering men.
The Australian government has shown itself to be too cowardly and conflicted to offer any kind of real humanitarian assistance to those in need. And the shills of the right are all too ready to condemn as un-Australian any assistance rendered to any but Australians.
In light of this, Prime Minister, the only hope of those on Manus Island lies with a nation willing to embark on an extraordinary act of courage and compassion. I sincerely hope that you are able to lead New Zealand in being this nation.
Jacinda I’m already so impressed by the work that you’re doing as PM of NZ. Please help us. Many many Australians disagree and are embarrassed that other countries have to stand in and help while our gvt harms people on Manus island & Nauru
Thank you for your offer to the Australian Government to resettle refugees in New Zealand. We hope in the near future,an Australian Government will have the decency to bring them to our shores or at least accept your offer.
Regrettably our own government is ignoring the basic humanitarian rights of the people imprisoned on Manus Island. We ask for your help, and that you act with urgency, to help these refugees who have been left in such tragic circumstances and who are refused help from the Australian government.
Congratulations Prime Minister on your win on your humanity and your sound common sense. Right now I’m deeply ashamed to be Australian by choice and emmensely proud to be a kiwi by birth
I support this letter
I urge you Prime Minister to bring humanity into a situation where it has been taken away by the Australian (and PNG) government. Please end this cruel torture of refugees and asylum seekers.
Please help our fellow men in devastating nerd and in the absence of humanity within our federal government
Our ‘Prime Minister’ should be jailed for torture & genocide. Malcolm Turnbull and his ilk make a mockery of the U.N. Conventions that Australia has signed. At this point in time, I’m ashamed to call myself Australian.
Thank you for your compassion and integrity; qualities I am ashamed to say are missing in the Australian government. If you can find a way to work with the PNG government and to take refugees to New Zealand, you will be fortunate to bring people with much courage and many talents and skills to contribute in your community.
Prime Minister Ardern, I join with others here to ask that you pursue negotiations directly with PNG for transfer of the men on Manus Island.
Thank you for your humanity and leadership. The actions taken by a handful of Australians is shameful. These people need help. New Zealand is showing the way.
NZ, thank you for showing compassion. I urge you to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to help solve the humanitarian crisis on MANUS! Australia, my country, is content with shirking it’s responsibilities for these people legally seeking asylum here.
I am pleading that you show the way!
Thank you
Congratulations are due for your success in the New Zealand elections.
Nevertheless, with sadness I thank you for offering to show compassion to those young men warehoused on Manus Island by the Australian government. Decency and humanity are in short supply this side of the ditch. You offer us Australians hope as well as those desperate young men.
Even world leaders sometimes make mistakes but the real leaders always learn from others no matter who they are.
Hopefully our Australian leaders will re-learn the lessons of compassion and humanity from the actions of the leaders of New Zealand.
I thank you for your willingness to house these refugees. PLEASE, keep this offer open until the Australian government agree to send these people to New Zealand.
Please evacuate all asylum seekers and refugees that have been taken to PNG by Australia and bring them to New Zealand. There are about 700 men. Some have negative refugee assessments but the assessment process was not conducted by the UNHCR but by a private company and is not reliable. All are in need of sanctuary. Their lives can be saved. If they are not urgently evacuated more will die.
Where is the humanity in the treatment of these people
Dear PM, could you send a frigate up there to pick these people up and we’ll help you get it sorted later. Let’s just get them off there. Many thanks for your intervention so far
Thank you Prime Minister for your kind consideration.
Thank you so much for bringing kindness back. A value so markedly absent in our current government’s thinking. I am so ashamed to be Australian at this time. Please be encouraged to pursue your generous inclination which will expose The Australian government’s calculated cruelty and hypocrisy.
Nurse
We condemned the Japanese for their inhumane treatment of Australian soldiers in WW11 and now our government is repeating the very same shameful acts of cruelty on people who have committed no crime. In years to come these people in power will be held to account for their actions. Of that I have no doubt. But that does not help these men, women and children who are in dire need of justice, kindness and care right now. Not in my name does this government act so heartlessly. Never forget.
Please help these poor people. We are so angry as Australians that this is being done in our name.
I can’t believe this is happening. I hate the thought that we are doing it. It’s so cruel & heartless. Please help us, help those poor people in detention & end this disgusting cruelty.
I support this letter. I am disgusted by the stance of our government on human rights particularly with regard to treatment of refugees and asylum seekers. Thank you for doing all you can to help these people.
Rachelle McLean, Maths Teacher
Thank you for showing our spineless and craven politicians what courage and humanity look like. I have never felt more ashamed to be an Australian. Please give these long suffering people the life they so deserve.
The not so subtle pressure applied by the Turnbull to dissuade the NZ government from pursuing their humane offer of resettlement is morally repugnant and I cannot but be appalled by the cynical use of these desperate refugees to play plitics of power.