By Mike Welsh
Former ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope today encouraged the crowd at a pro-refugees rally to pressure all Canberra Federal Pollies. Stanhope told the estimated 2500-strong crowd politicians who claimed to be “personally against” compulsory detention were hypocrites.
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“You either support the policy or you don’t, and the silence of Labor Party members in the face of the overwhelming evidence of the devastating impact of indefinite offshore detention can only be interpreted in one way; as support for the policy,” Jon Stanhope
The former Administrator of Australian Indian Ocean Territories (Christmas Island) urged the crowd at the Civic rally to make “life hard” for all Canberra Federal Pollies including his one time apprentice Senator Katy Gallagher. Stanhope, the last minute replacement for the rally’s star speaker Julian Burnside QC (a late scratching due to a family matter) slammed National ALP for not making a clear statement on its opposition to off shore detention for asylum seekers.
