Greens Should Block Supply of Offshore Processing Funds

During Budget Week, the Greens Should Block Supply of Offshore Processing Funds

Media Release
Thursday May 2, 2013 8:00am WST
For immediate Release
No Embargoes

"During the 14-16 May Federal Budget Parliamentary session, the Greens should block supply of all funds associated with the government's hideous offshore asylum processing prison camps," WA Human Rights group Project SafeCom said today.

"The 2013 Budget session provides the perfect opportunity for the Greens to 'put their money where their mouth is' following confirmation earlier during the Parliamentary year that the Greens/Gillard agreement had been 'ripped up' - that there is no longer a governing agreement between the Greens and the Gillard government," spokesman Jack H Smit said.

"Frankly speaking," Jack Smit said, "I don't give a rat's arse if the entire godforsaken country comes to a screeching halt over the filthy issue of what we do to asylum seekers who arrive to seek our help - but even leaving my own intense and long-standing fury aside, there are many things the Greens can do to ensure beyond any doubt that every single citizen and every voter, no matter how remotely tucked away in forgotten corners of Australia, becomes fully aware of the gigantic amounts of taxpayer money that is ripped out of our pockets to make sure that asylum seekers are subjected to a tortured existence in sick-making far-flung tropical islands, and that this heinous thing was dreamt up In Our Country, the only country on earth to do so, and this disgusting thing takes place In Their Name," Jack Smit said.

"Last Monday's ABC Four Corners program did not only shed a stark light on the heinous plot cooked up on Nauru and on Manus Island by the Gillard government - with full support of the Liberal-National Coalition - but it also revealed that the measures designed by these disgusting Coalition and Labor politicians does its dirty work at the staggering cost of no less than one million dollars per asylum seeker per year."

"During last Monday's Four Corners program the Regional Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Richard Towle revealed that the billions of dollars spent by these disgusting Coalition and Labor politicians amounts to no less than 50% of the United Nations' Global Annual Human Rights Budget".

"During Budget Week, the Greens can demand that all expenditure related to the State response to asylum seekers, including all expenses associated with offshore processing - including the massive expenses opportunistically filed under Australia's Foreign Aid Budget (the funds in reality spent to make sure that the poverty-stricken countries of Nauru and Papua New Guinea become compliant servants of Australia's heinous policies), gets separated in a distinct Budget Allocation Bill, so that they - and any other politician who seeks to support the Greens - can oppose the passing of these Budget items."

"The Greens are the only group of politicians who have been consistent in their vehement opposition to offshore processing (which is under the Gillard government not processing, but 'dumping') of asylum seekers. A separate Budget Bill will not only place our filthy squandering of billions of dollars into stark relief, but it will also offer any other politicians an opportunity to vote with the Greens. There are some other politicians who have shown that they do not leave their conscience in the ashtrays and rubbish bins outside the Parliamentary entrance doors. They know who they are, and they can be given an opportunity to enact their decency as a result of this Bill the Greens could introduce."

ENDS

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