Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I wish to raise the concerns of a number of constituents in my electorate over the issue of children in detention. I will start with the Bendigo chapter of Grandmothers Protesting against Children in Detention. On 11 February about 60 Bendigo grandmothers gathered together outside St Paul's Cathedral in Bendigo to protest against the federal government's detention of refugee children. The newly formed Bendigo chapter of Grandmothers Protesting against Children in Detention demanded that children with their families be freed immediately into the community. This is not your typical group of protesters—grandmothers in my electorate coming together to say, 'Free the children.' Co-founder of Grandmothers Protesting against Children in Detention, Dr Davey, told the crowd that she was 'deeply distressed by what is being done to mothers and children'. She believed that 'no civilised country has such a policy' and that we needed to have compassion when it came to children in detention.

In relation to this issue, I also wish to mention a group of religious leaders in my community, who last Thursday had their day in court. More than 50 people gathered near the conservatory in Bendigo on Thursday morning to pray and to sing in support of the eight religious leaders who had been arrested months earlier for trying to have a meeting with Senator Bridget McKenzie. Several Christian leaders faced the Bendigo Magistrates Court over charges relating to a silent protest that they held in her office foyer last year. One of the protesters was the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, John Roundhill. He said at the speakout before the court hearing that detaining asylum-seeking children went against their human rights; he called on the federal government to change the policy. He said that the plight of children in mandatory detention was not fair, that it went against human rights and that we needed to do our best to ensure that the children were protected.

These are religious leaders of my community speaking out about something they believe in deeply; these are grandmothers in my community speaking out about something they believe in deeply. The good news is that the magistrate found the charges against the eight to be proven but, using his discretionary powers, dismissed the charges. He said that there was clearly a breach of the law but it was hardly a serious one. It is also an issue of democracy: we need to ensure that people are able to speak up and speak out about what they believe in.