Student Protesters Occupy Immigration Offices in Sydney and Canberra
Despite the men at the Manus Island Dentition Center receiving plenty of notice that the Australian Government would be closing the facility this week they have refused to leave and take up alternative accommodation that had been arranged. This has been a coordinated stunt by these men and the refugee advocates in Australia to try and generate public sympathy for them and so they can claim the government is starving, torturing and committing violence on the island.
This is just the latest in a long line of stunts refugees and their advocates have engaged in, you may remember close to a year ago they interrupted the House of Representatives during Question Time with their slogan ‘FFS close the bloody camps’. Despite their antics strong border protection is supported by a majority of Australians, both through polling and through the fact that in 2013 the voters turfed out a government which dismantled our previous tough border policies and elected a government which promised to stop the boats, a promise it delivered.
The strategy of these refugee advocates is to harass and intimidate our political leaders as much as possible in the hope they will ignore the wishes of the public and throw open the borders again. Their demands are facilitated by a sympathetic mainstream media as well as by leftist politicians such as Greens Senator Nick McKim and Labor Senator Lisa Singh (who once again exposes Labor’s weakness on border protection).
Even actor Russell Crowe felt the need to virtue signall on the issue tweeting that the Manus Island stand off was “”f***ing disgraceful”. Although he did offer to house 6 of the men on the island at his place which is more than what most left-progressives are willing to offer, though we will see if follows through with that.
Manus. A Nations shame. Lives held in limbo . Lives lived in fear & despair . It’s fucking disgraceful
— Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) November 1, 2017
I’ve thought about this . I believe I could house and find jobs for 6. I’m sure there’d be other Australians who would do the same
— Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) November 1, 2017
New Zealand’s socially progressive Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has also been eager to display her bleeding heart stating New Zealand would accept 150 of the men from Manus. This is despite the fact she was elected on a platform of reducing immigration to New Zealand and was part of the reason Winston Peters and New Zealand First backed her.
Today refugee advocates along with student protesters have occupied the Sydney and Canberra offices of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection offices to demand our government bring them here as their slogan goes. Photos from the occupation have been posted under the twitter hashtag #wearewatching. They ironically call it a peaceful occupation and complained about being arrested, I don’t see how invading a workplace and causing distress to employees at the department just doing their job is peaceful.
@AusFedPolice arrests peaceful protesters occupying @DIBPAustralia in Canberra. We will not be silenced #manus #wearewatching pic.twitter.com/bw8O6bYDkP
— RAC Canberra (@rac_canberra) November 3, 2017
Thankfully for all its faults the Turnbull Government and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton have not showed any sign of weakening when it comes to maintaining our current border protection arrangements to not give any incentive for people to come illegally to Australia by boat. The refugee advocates can shriek as much as they like (but they should be held accountable if they break the law) but the government on this issue is listening to the silent majority of Australians.