Letter to PM Julia

this was sent via Get UP Welcome Writ Large

Dear Prime Minister,

warm congratulations on yesterday (24th June). I hope it will be a fulfilling and exciting time for you.
My plea is that you will be mindful of the needs and terrors facing those who seek asylum in our country. Those who cannot obtain a visa to fly in and whose only hope is to take to the seas in leaky boats.

I do not share that worry about border protection that you talked of in your press conference yesterday, but I understand that you do know more about it than I do. However, I would hope that you might lead us to be the welcoming nation that we were when I was at school in the 1950's. A time of migration and a time when Australia was a refuge for many fleeing the aftermath of war.

But now, we need a new story to build on the strength of the multi cultural society we have become. I ask that you might seek to find that.

I would also encourage you in your efforts to place a price on carbon and to bring Australians with you.
Climate change is not something to "believe in", but something to cause great action and deep changes in the way we live our lives. Changing our lives to combat this danger can bring great benefit to all of us.

I write as a "Woman in Black", one who has stood at the back entry into Parliament on those early mornings of a new sitting. As I watch you all (politicians and others) come into the Parliament to work I am very aware of the weight of the task that we lay upon your shoulders. May that task be light upon you, enjoyable and fulfilling,

yours sincerely,