Police Are Moving Refugees From Camping Outside Burke’s Punchbowl Office

Shop 29, 1 Broadway, Punchbowl NSW 2196

The zone outside Immigration Minister Tony Burke’s Punchbowl electoral office is awash with protesting refugees. Some 20 of them have slept there in chilly tents and marquees overnight.

The event is twinned with a 24/7 encampment running for 23 days at O’Neil’s Oakleigh office and now outside the Home Affairs building in Dockside Melbourne.

Burke’s Watson office manager has offered to meet refugees encamped outside the Watson office next Monday. Refugees say that Permanent Visas issued by the Minister are what is required. A direct meeting with Burke was requested by protesters the very day he became Minister for Immigration.

Police are asking refugees to move off the median strip at the Cenotaph at the Boulevard in Punchbowl for their “safety”.

Refugees respond that “If the Australian Government was in any way concerned for refugee safety they would end statelessness”.

It is better for productivity if the people are not broken by being used as deterrents. They have been destroyed by 12+ years of limbo. We ask, “How Low Will Labor Go?”

The protest is refugee initiated and run. The tents and printing have been funded by refugees themselves. No major organisations or political agendas are at play. However political opponents of Labor have been visiting the encampment in Melbourne. Western Sydney contains several seats that are marginal for Labor.

Yesterday up to 100 refugees had gathered by dusk when supportive locals honked horns and did burnouts to express support. Owners of a local restaurant joined the protest in sympathy last night and served the protesters heavily discounted refreshments.

The spirit of the protest is bright. Tamil, Bangladeshi and Persian songs are playing. Our guitar-playing Minister for the Arts (also Burke) has been invited out to jam along.

However, Burke is also a former Minister for Workplace Relations. He knows that maintaining an economic underclass undermines equity and bargaining power for workers.

He is asked not to mirror Dutton and the LNP on blaming immigrants for shortages of housing created by negative gearing or for a cost of living affected by corporations and global economic settings.

A fair and democratic Australia is a safer Australia for any vulnerable person.

None of us have political jobs or refugee sector jobs. The refugees are driving this. They decide and contribute what they can to costs. I personally am a renter in $10,000 debt for family groceries, printing & camping gear & car repairs. Doing it anyway.

See also: Refugees and asylum seekers camping at Tony Burke’s Punchbowl office 24/7