The Australian GREENS

MEDIA RELEASE

PETER CAMPBELL, CANDIDATE FOR KOOYONG

4:30pm Thursday 7 October 2004

Liberal deserve F on asylum seeker issues

Peter Campbell, Greens Candidate for Kooyong, stated today the Petro Georgiou is engaging in dirty tricks by misrepresenting his position on treatment of asylum seekers in the closing days of the election campaign.

“Several refugee advocates who reside in Kooyong have contacted me today to express their outrage that Petro Georgiou has been ranked A+ by the A Just Australia ‘Refugee Guarantee’ scoring” Mr Campbell said.

“The Liberal Party has just posted an A4-size flyer containing the Refugee Guarantee Kooyong candidate ratings to some electors on the Kooyong electoral roll. This mail-out is at taxpayers' expense from Petro Georgiou’s office, which I consider to be quite inappropriate”.

"I find it very surprising that an organisation like A Just Australia can give any Liberal Party MP a high score when they have continually mistreated asylum seekers. Mr Georgiou has not even signed A Just Australia's Refugee Guarantee. He should get an F for what the Howard government has done".

“If Petro Georgiou is such a good performer on refugee issues why are there still 80 children in detention, and why does the Howard Government’s inhumane detention of asylum seekers continue?”

“Asylum seekers and refugees, including many children, are still locked behind razor wire and are suffering greatly at the hands of the Howard government – it is completely unacceptable that Petro Georgiou condones this and pretends otherwise”, Mr Campbell said.

“Refugee advocates have told me that they have contacted Petro Georgiou to seek his support on numerous occasions, but have never even received a response from him. Petro is the member who is infamous for being ‘missing in action’”, Mr Campbell said.

"The vast majority of refugee and asylum seeker organisations across Australia including the Justice Project have rated the Greens policies and approach to asylum seekers as far superior to the Liberals. So it seems A Just Australia is on their own when it comes to endorsing Liberal Party MPs".

“I call on the Petro Georgiou and the Howard government to immediately release all asylum seekers from detention, to revoke the mandatory detention policy, and to stop their dirty tricks during this election campaign.” Mr Campbell said.

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For more information, please contact:

Simon Lansdown, Media Officer, Telephone: 0415 535 564

Peter Campbell, Greens candidate for Kooyong, Telephone: 0409 417 504