Nannas set to needle Abetz

Tasmanian grandmothers will be protesting at Liberal Senator Eric Abetz’s office at 1.30pm tomorrow (Friday).

The Tassie Nannas will conduct a knit-in to protest the federal government’s plans to make hundreds of men, women and children homeless and destitute in an effort to force them to return to offshore detention, or back to the places they fled.

“The government’s cruel and heartless treatment of the most vulnerable of people this week has made us very angry”, said spokesperson Trish Moran. “Don’t kick them when they’re down, let them stay!”

The Nannas are furious about the government’s “Final Departure Visa”, which gives asylum seekers brought to Australia from Manus and Nauru for medical or humanitarian reasons six months to go back offshore, or return to the countries from which they fled.

“We’re talking 116 children and 50 babies, their parents, and single people – around 410 souls altogether. They were brought here from Manus and Nauru because they had SERIOUS problems there.

“They’ve been living harmlessly in the community, rebuilding lives shattered by our cruel offshore detention system”, she said.

“Now Minister Dutton has begun cutting off their meagre allowances and throwing them out of their accommodation. After forbidding them to work, he’s now telling them to find jobs to support themselves and pay the rent.

“Unemployment is high: who will employ a very anxious, stressed person who’s supposed to be gone in 6 months?

“In PNG, not content with shutting Manus camp and forcing the men detained there into a poor community that doesn’t want and can’t cope with them, our government has started forcibly transferring them to Port Moresby.

“That’s even more dangerous for them than Manus. It’s time to bring them here and let them stay.

“We’re keen to talk with Senator Abetz about this bullying of powerless, blameless people. We could even teach him to knit – knitting soothes the troubled mind.”

The Tassie Nannas are a familiar sight around Hobart: every Friday they knit in the Mall from 11 til I, to publicise their cause of fairer treatment for refugees.
Trish Moran, Tassie Nannas