BY KATRINA HECKENDORF

SYDNEY — On September 22, the “Friends of Philip Ruddock” celebrated his 30th year in parliament. Partygoers paid more than $100 each to join the immigration minister, Prime Minister John Howard and a long list of other infamous Liberal Party associates for dinner at the plush Convention Centre in Sydney's Darling Harbour.

While Ruddock's supporters were waited on, sipping their drinks on the balcony of the centre, approximately 400 refugee-rights supporters “commemorated” the event from the street below. We shared stories of lives tormented and wasted in detention and the murder and imprisonment of refugees deported.

Speakers included Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition, US socialist Paul D’Amato and Mohsen, a refugee from Iraq, who pleaded with Ruddock's supporters to consider, “Where are the human rights? Where is the humanity?”.

Protesters also highlighted the recent “cash for visas” bribery scandal and vented their anger at the government with chants such as “Lock up Ruddock, free the refugees” and “Refugees are welcome, racism is not”.

From Green Left Weekly, October 1, 2003.
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