On your TV tonight

Breaking: tune in to ABC's Four Corners at 8:30pm tonight - and sign the emergency petition to stop the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef now

 you tune in to Four Corner's tonight you'll see a truly shocking story about the destruction of huge swathes of our Great Barrier Reef. Not to spoil the plot, but... Millions of cubic metres of sea floor are being drudged up from the Great Barrier Reef to make way for massive new coal seem gas export facilities. No, we're not kidding.

It's the largest dredging project ever undertaken in Australia, and one that has the United Nations' Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) so alarmed they're warning the Reef could lose its iconic world heritage status. We've created an emergency petition to stop this. Sign here, tune in and spread the word now.

www.getup.org.au/dredging-the-reef

As The Age recently put it- what's of primary concern is the "vast dredging program" associated with the construction of three coal seam gas plants located inside the reef's World Heritage area. "The Gladstone Ports Corporation (GPC) has approvals to dredge 46 million cubic metres from within the harbour boundaries, inside the World Heritage area, over the next 20 years...a volume equivalent to 27 Melbourne Cricket Grounds." ¹

Environment Minister Tony Burke has so far refused to stand up for the Reef, a priceless and fragile site of significance not just to Australia, but to the world. Imagine if the Pyramids were being bulldozed or the Grand Canyon mined -- the global community would be furious. Well UNESCO is furious. They're sending a special delegation in March to inspect the mining sites at the Reef, but that's too late to stop the damage happening now.

Meanwhile, UNESCO are being lobbied hard by the insatiable coal seam gas industry. And although they failed to even tell UNESCO about the project, the state and federal governments would have us simply trust them to monitor and regulate this crazy project -- claiming it's possible to dredge up 46 million cubic metres of reef inside a world heritage site provided there's sufficient environmental oversight. If the Australian Government won't stand up for the Great Barrier Reef as it's ripped up for corporate profit, we will.

That's why we've created an urgent petition, as we prepare to launch this campaign on the global stage.

www.getup.org.au/dredging-the-reef

The fragile and unique ecosystem of the Great Barrier Reef is already under intense pressure due to earlier floods and a changing climate. We've witnessed a steep increase in the rates of death of endangered marine wildlife this year -- including dolphins, dugongs and turtles. The massive development for the coal seam gas industry may well prove too much for it to handle.

Coal seam gas mining is now affecting our communities and environment, from the family farm to the deep blue sea, and once these areas are destroyed, no amount of money will ever bring them back. Sign the petition now, and if you're on Twitter and Facebook, be sure to alert others to this campaign as you watch the Four Corners program tonight at 8.30pm.

Thank you for using your voice now,
The GetUp team

¹New battlefront opens up in gas debate, Tracey Ferrier, The Age, October 31 2011.

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GetUp is an independent, not-for-profit community campaigning group. We use new technology to empower Australians to have their say on important national issues. We receive no political party or government funding, and every campaign we run is entirely supported by voluntary donations. If you'd like to contribute to help fund GetUp's work, please donate now! If you have trouble with any links in this email, please go directly to www.getup.org.au. To unsubscribe from GetUp, please click here. Authorised by Simon Sheikh, Level 5, 116 Kippax St, Surry Hills NSW 2010

Did you see 4 Corners last night?

Did you see Four Corners last night? The shocking footage they showed of refugees languishing in detention centres was a disgrace: http://www.getup.org.au/detention-disgrace

We've all known for a long time now that our immigration detention centres would be better labelled "mental illness factories," but last night's episode of Four Corners brought the faces and names of this tragedy into living rooms around Australia for the first time in almost a decade. That's because government officials usually block media access to the harsh conditions inside detention centres.

But here's something you may not know: in the last three years, self harm incidents have jumped by 2600% to over 1,132.¹Can you sign this urgent petition to end the process of leaving refugees languishing in immigration detention centres?

http://www.getup.org.au/detention-disgrace

Last night's Four Corners episode highlighted the absurdity and cruelty of a system that locks people away for legally seeking asylum. Many are refugees who have stood up to the Taliban in Afghanistan only to find themselves punished in Australia for having committed no crime; locked away for more than a year inside dark and hopeless places where self-harm, suicide attempts, heavy psychiatric medication and wanton despair have become the new normal.

What's worse - when a decision on their application is finally made, our officials often get it wrong. Almost 75% of visa protection refusals are ultimately overturned upon review.² The simple reality is that the vast majority of people seeking asylum in Australia are genuine refugees but while they are treated like criminals, their mental and physical health suffers.

The cost to our community, the harm done to real people who need our help, and the betrayal of our nation's deepest values can no longer be ignored. Almost no other western country practices mandatory detention for asylum seekers – and after a decade of failed policy from Governments on both sides of the aisle, the dam is finally starting to break on this deeply inhumane and misguided policy.

Help end this now: http://www.getup.org.au/detention-disgrace

One of the worst aspects of detention is the reviled 'Management Unit'. One story that makes us shudder: guards entered the room of an asylum seeker and ordered him to strip. He refused, because, apart from it being deeply humiliating for a Muslim man to be naked in front of others, his 7-year old daughter was in the room. The guards then beat him up, handcuffed him and took him to the “Management Unit,” a series of solitary confinement cells.

Julian Burnside QC, having seen a video of a Management Unit cell, describes it like this: "there's a cell about 3.5 metres square, with a mattress on the floor. There is no other furniture; the walls are bare. A doorway, with no door, leads into a tiny bathroom. The cell has no view outside but it is never dark. The occupant has nothing to read, no writing materials, no TV or radio; no company yet no privacy because a video camera observes and records everything, 24 hours a day. The detainee is kept in the cell 23.5 hours a day. For half an hour a day he is allowed into a small exercise area where he can see the sky."

With some detainees spending close to 2 years in detention and many suffering post traumatic stress, it's no wonder that on our watch detainees are attempting suicide by hanging themselves from trees.

As one interviewee said last night, having attempted and failed to commit suicide: "unfortunately even death didn't want me."

Sign our urgent petition here: http://www.getup.org.au/detention-disgrace

No one coming to Australia should be made to feel this way - much less those brave enough to flee our world's most violent and oppressive regimes. And the thing is, we think that in their heart of hearts, our Government agrees. As the former Minister for Immigration Senator Evans said in 2008: "Labor rejects the notion that dehumanising and punishing unauthorised arrivals with long-term detention is an effective or civilised response. Desperate people are not deterred by the threat of harsh detention – they are often fleeing much worse circumstances."³

There is now growing momentum from within the government to live up to these words but as we know, our politicians will only ever soar as high as we demand. Can you help tip the balance toward a more humane approach?

Thanks for taking a stand - let's end this,
the GetUp Team


P.S. Later today mental health professionals will begin their campaign against prolonged mandatory detention. The momentum for change has begun - sign up here: http://www.getup.org.au/detention-disgrace


-- Sources --

¹ Drawn from DIAC responses to Questions on Notice to the Joint Select Committee Into Australia's Immigration Detention Network. See http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/immigration_detention_ctte/immigration_detention/submissions.htm
² 4 Corners: "Asylum"; 24 Oct 2011; http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2011/10/20/3344543.htm
³ Sen. Chris Evans, Minister for Immigration. "New Directions in Detention" http://www.minister.immi.gov.au/media/speeches/2008/ce080729.htm

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GetUp is an independent, not-for-profit community campaigning group. We use new technology to empower Australians to have their say on important national issues. We receive no political party or government funding, and every campaign we run is entirely supported by voluntary donations. If you'd like to contribute to help fund GetUp's work, please donate now! If you have trouble with any links in this email, please go directly to www.getup.org.au. To unsubscribe from GetUp, please click here. Authorised by Simon Sheikh, Level 5, 116 Kippax St, Surry Hills NSW 2010


Asylum - 4 Corners, Transcript

Asylum - 4 Corners