Ballarat residents have reinforced Australia’s growing support for refugees and asylum seekers, with more than 100 locals flocking to a rally outside town hall on Monday.
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A last-minute ‘Let Them Stay’ rally organised by Rural Australians for Refugees saw a large cross section of the community unite behind a single message following last week’s High Court decision to send 267 asylum seekers brought to Australia for medical treatment back to Nauru.
The rally, one of many across the country including massive turnouts in Melbourne and Sydney, came on the back of a letter penned by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, which asserted that Victoria is ready to assist and care for families of the 267.
"While I believe that in such clearly exceptional circumstances as these, you have a clear obligation to support these children and their families, a political argument is no benefit to them," Mr Andrews told Mr Turnbull.
"Instead, I write to inform you that Victoria will accept full responsibility for all of these children and their families, including the provision of housing, health, education and welfare services. I want these children and their families to call Victoria home."
While only short, the Ballarat rally was nonetheless powerful, with councillor Belinda Coates and Rural Australians for Refugees representative Kath Morton both speaking to great effect.
“We’re maybe now seeing a shift in the conversation,” Cr Coates said.
“Hopefully it's (now) a time for people to broadly say that enough is enough.
“There’s always been a strong level of support for doing the right thing, but the difficulty has been at that federal policy level. Politicians have been reluctant to show that leadership.
“It (Mr Andrews’ letter) will hopefully put pressure on the Prime Minister to really take notice.”
Ms Morton was astounded by the level of support.
“I’m delighted to see so many people so interested,” she said.
“Even during the latter part of last year, locally, I sensed more people are becoming aware.”
The rallies are set to continue, with the Grandmothers against Detention of Refugee Children set to congregate outside the electoral office of Ballarat MP Catherine King on Monday.