reply to Verity Firth’s email urging me to vote for her in the ALP’s Policy Forum:

Hi Verity and team

I am ineligible to vote. After 17 years including some very active ones, I cancelled my membership of the ALP on 27 March. I don’t want to be seen to be part of a Party perpetuating the conservatives’ punitive policies toward asylum seekers. The Gillard Government’s policies feed straight into and out of a racial undercurrent the ALP should be leading Australia away from. And incidentally, in the context of the Australia in the Asian Century White Paper it sends the message “sure we’re open and responsive to Asia, so long as there’s a dollar in it.’”

Decades from now historians will look back at the present asylum seeker “issue” in much the same way we look back now at the White Australia Policy.

I can only hope should you reach the policy forum you take this on-board.

Regards
M J MacNamara