BY DOD ROSHANBIN
BRISBANE — Ross Daniels of Amnesty International told a public meeting here on March 1 that a 200-inmate immigration detention centre is planned for a yet to be revealed Brisbane site.
Daniels also said that the federal ALP's immigration spokesperson Con Sciacca had told him that Labor had "no intention at all" of changing "the bipartisan arrangements for the compulsory detention of people who come here illegally". Daniels noted that in the past two years Australia has not filled its annual intake quota of 12,000 refugees.
The meeting of 150 people, organised by the Refugee Action Collective, was addressed Reverend Peter Kennedy from St Mary's Church and Gwen Charlton from the International Socialist Organisation.
At a RAC organising meeting on March 6 there was strong support for a campaign to stop the construction of the detention centre in Brisbane. A picket of Australasian Correctional Management's Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre at Wacol (which includes an immigration detention unit) will at be held on April 11 at 4pm.
The next meeting of Brisbane RAC is on March 28, 6pm, at the TLC building, 16 Peel Street, South Brisbane. Phone Dod on (07) 3831 2644.