Protesters from the Love Makes a Way Christian movement have held a rally outside the federal opposition leader Bill Shorten’s electorate office in Victoria, calling for asylum seekers in offshore detention centres to be brought to Australia.
The action was one of about 40 held at MPs’ offices across the country this week after the Guardian’s publication of the Nauru files, a set of more than 2,000 incident reports detailing child abuse, hunger strikes, sexual assaults and day-to-day life at the Nauru detention centre.
Year 12 student Angelica Panopoulos, 17, from the Refugee Action Collective, said she wanted to make it clear to the Labor leader that his calling for a Senate inquiry into the abuses was not enough. He should call for the asylum seekers to be brought to Australia, she said.
“I’m sick of the hypocrisy of it all,” she told Guardian Australia. “On one hand you have politicians condemning violence against women but then you have women being assaulted in detention and politicians ignoring it. You have politicians talking about the importance of children’s education and safety, and then ignoring the human rights of children in detention.
“To be honest, the Nauru files shouldn’t be shocking, because we know this is happening, we have so much evidence. It’s time for something to be done.”
About 35 protesters sang, “Where were you when the abuses came to light?,” and read out excerpts from the Nauru files outside Shorten’s Moonee Ponds electorate office. They held up signs that read “Refugees are people too” and “Keep kids safe”.
Ian Ferguson, minister of the Brunswick Uniting Church and a member of the Love Makes a Way group, said Shorten’s call for a Senate inquiry was “a right step to take”.
“However, he also said he continues to support offshore processing and we want him to reconsider that position and make the government bring the people on Nauru and Manus Island here,” Ferguson said.
“What is it going to take? My sense is that the government isn’t going to change its stance while public opinion still appears to be in support of the offshore processing policies – which is unbelievable but true.
“That’s part of what we are about, standing up for compassion and encouraging compassion in others. We stand as Christians here saying values of Australians of compassion and standing by the most downtrodden should be considered by the leaders.”
He described Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers as a “stain” on the country and as “something we will be living down for decades to come”.
The protesters stuck paper dolls on which excerpts from the Nauru files were written on the windows of Shorten’s office. They stayed for about an hour, chanting, singing and peacefully protesting as a single police officer looked on.
When contacted by Guardian Australia, a spokesman for Shorten said only: “Labor’s position on offshore processing is clear.”
