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The convergence: a colourful array of affinity groups prepared to confront Australia's vilification of refugees and asylum seekers

Our Events: all past and current Project SafeCom events

Project SafeCom started ... as a website. And as a "protest movement" developed, so did we. From time to time we organised events, film evenings, fundraisers (and not only to keep our project going - also for others, and for refugees).

Maybe we're more a "lobby group" or an "advocacy group" these days - using the power of email, the internet and the website to make ourselves heard and known around Australia.

'Whatever it takes' may be the slogan. And while there is a photo of the 'crew' on location at the Baxter detention centre during Easter 2003 gracing this page - we weren't actually there .... we had a role doing the media work for those who went to Baxter .... from the tiny wheatbelt town of Narrogin; all this of course in addition to the now famous News and Updates.

Below are the links to the pages of our projects, and our events since the days of the Tampa drama. They are warmly recommended for your exploration!

It also includes some events we participated in, organised by other groups and organisations - and where we took a major role in disseminating information and details of those events.

Royal Commission

The call for a Royal Commission into detention and the treatment of refugees, asylum seekers and immigration detainees has always been relevant, especially since the 2001 Tampa stand-off. With Downloadable Petition Form!

Blog archives

18 October 2006: The Project SafeCom Blog Archives - This is the page that brings together all entries from our Blog. They are manually entered, so please accept apologies if sudden and new entries are not posted to this page immediately.

Broadcasted News Alerts

9 January 2009: Broadcasting our news alerts - In August 2002 we sent our first and eleborate News alert, followed by another one in November that year. We repeated the initiative when country-wide outrage erupted as a result of the Anti-terrorism Bill 2005. From 2009, after the creation of our new database platform by David Coulter, we've started to use the pure HTML News alerts again to broadcast our news and progress periodically.

Events

7 May 2010: A Time to Burn: The End of Kevin Rudd's Bonhoeffer Confessions - Under his new anti-people smuggling laws Prime Minister Kevin Rudd would prosecute his spiritual hero Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the theologian who spiritually inspired him, as a people smuggler - and throw him in an Australian jail for up to twenty years. We organise a protest action at a RRAN Event at the Perth Airport detention centre

Take electronic action! ::: E-ACTION ALERT ::: March 2009: Time for Climate change action: Tell Kevin Rudd and Penny Wong! - Kevin Rudd's 5% reduction targets are not enough, Australia's worst polluters should stop getting obscene subsidies from Australian taxpayers, and it's high time to tell the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Climate change Minister Penny Wong, and Peter Garrett MP, that we need some "real" climate change policies!

7 February 2009: Linda Briskman at Project SafeCom's 2008 AGM - "Organisations like Project SafeCom are not out to win the popularity stakes with government; like other organisations the emphasis is on bringing about an inclusive society where human rights are not violated and where human rights tenets are to the forefront of our thinking."

Take electronic action! ::: E-ACTION ALERT ::: January 2009: Gaza Petition: Letter to Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith - 18 Israelis were killed as a result of Hamas rockets in the last eight years, yet in the last few weeks the Israeli army has killed almost 900 people in the Gaza area, amongst them at least a hundred women and more than 230 children. Australia should have a firm and unwaivering commitment upholding democracy, international law and human rights. This commitment includes the capacity to be 'frank and fearless', also to those countries that show destructive and aggressive behaviour.

Take electronic action! ::: E-ACTION ALERT ::: November 2008: Petition letter: Re-opening the Nauru Deportation files - an e-alert to Chris Evans following the screening on SBS-TV of the Edmund Rice Centre's documentary 'A Well Founded Fear'. "All deportation cases need to be re-opened, because we are obliged to undertake a 'rescue mission' to retrieve those who we deported, cajoled or pressured to return."

GetUp's End Detention Campaign21 July 2008: Supporting GetUp!'s End Mandatory Detention campaign - Online campaign group GetUp! are partnering with a range of refugee advocacy organisations, including Project SafeCom, to send a petition to the federal government's Immigration Detention Inquiry. Chances like this don't come very often - to end a regrettable chapter of Australian history that caused unimaginable suffering to some of the world's most desperate and downtrodden.

Take electronic action! ::: E-ACTION ALERT ::: June-July 2008: Australian Refugee Week Campaign: There's an Elephant in My backyard - an e-alert to Kevin Rudd and Chris Evans about the Christmas Island refugee jail and many more outstanding issues. This page contains an electronic letter form you can use to write to Immigration Minister Chris Evans and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. You can choose one, more or all topics, choose the pre-set text or your own, or both.

Project SafeCom's 2008 World Refugee Day event

21 June 2008: World Refugee Day 2008: Andrew Bartlett and A Nun's New Habit - Senator Andrew Bartlett, on his last day as a Senator, presents a lecture about Australia, asylum seekers, refugees and the Migration Act; and we celebrate the tens of thousands of ordinary Australians, and amongst them in particular the catholic nuns, who became a massive wall of quiet protest during the years since Tampa in the Documentary A Nun's New Habit.

16 June 2008: 2008 World Refugee Day: Who'll keep the bastards honest now? - This page contains media reportage surrounding Project SafeCom's 2008 World Refugee Day movie event at the Fremantle Film and TV Institute, and it begins with an Opinion Editorial by Queensland Democrats Senator Andrew Bartlett.

8 November 2007: Fremantle Election Forum: Porkbarreling human rights - In this Fremantle Town Hall event, we first show Michael Winterbottom's The Road To Guantánamo, before we line up the candidates for the Federal seat of Fremantle and the candidates for the Senate of the major parties as well as the small parties, and we ask them how they intend to represent a full human rights platform. And we'll see what they come up with!

5 August 2007: E X C I S E D ! - Paddling The Excision Zone with David Corlett and Simon Keenan - Be part of a sea kayaking journey in and around Australia's 'excised zone' - those parts of Australia's north (including Christmas Island and Ashmore Reef) that have been legislatively cut off from the migration zone in order to prohibit any asylum seeker arriving there from applying for protection in Australia.

Project SafeCom's 2007 World Refugee Day event17 July 2007: Project SafeCom's 2007 World Refugee Day readings - This week's Fremantle Herald, a major Project SafeCom sponsor, features major coverage of Project SafeCom's World Refugee Day event as part of its wraparound for World Refugee Day. This page reproduces the entire section, including articles by our speakers for the event who came from The Greens, the ALP, and from Melbourne. Perth Community Television (CTV) filmed the event, and the 15-minute documentary is included on this page.

22 June 2007: World Refugee Day 2007: Why the Boats Must Come - A movie evening set to become one of our biggest ever events, with UN Lawyer Melissa Parke, Carmen Lawrence, Melbourne advocate Jessie Taylor, and the movie We Will Be Remembered for This, featuring Malcolm Fraser and Julian Burnside about Baxter and Australia.

28 March to 1 April 2007: Canberra in March 07: two significant events in one significant week - Manning Clark House's Sixth Annual Weekend of Ideas: A Fair Go for Refugees?, a Talk and Dinner with Project SafeCom's Jack Smit, and a significant week of Parliament with both Houses sitting for the last week before this year's Easter recess. Make sure you're there!

28 December 2006: The 2006 Volunteer of the Year Trophy - Since we started our organisation in 2001, many people have helped Project SafeCom develop into the organisation it has become: and at the 2006 Christmas wind-up we took the opportunity to honour one of our volunteers.

4 November 2006: Walk Against Warming: Day of Action on Climate Change - The Government will only take real action on climate change and protect our kids' futures if you to tell them to. Join thousands of other Australians in a peaceful walk urging action on climate change on the International Day of Action on Climate Change now.

31 October 2006: People & Planet: A Social Justice & Environment Diary - this great initiative by Global Trade Watch, which benefited dozens of NGO's and grassroots groups around Australia, proved an overwhelming sucess, and we almost sold out within a few days. Here's the page for the Diary.

26 October 2006: Out of Sight, Out of Mind: 2006 Refugee Week - KULCHA & Project SafeCom would like to invite you to a special event being held in conjunction with Refugee Week, joining the national Refugee Week celebrations by hosting a visual arts exhibition Out of Sight, Out of Mind, by Adam Janali Ozala. Ozala is a Hazara refugee from Afghanistan. For three and a half years he waited in detention centres for his claim for asylum to be approved. Unable to communicate to the outside world...

11 October 2006: Antony's Israel Question: Book Launch and Forum This is the official Western Australian Book Launch and Forum for Antony Loewenstein's 'My Israel Question', a forum with Antony Loewenstein, Prof Linda Briskman, Dr Samina Yasmeen and Giz Watson MLC at Kulcha, Fremantle. Organised by Project SafeCom in collaboration with The Social Justice Network.

16 October 2006: Reporting on the Loewenstein Book Launch and Forum - a page with photos, speeches and articles following the 11 October 2006 Forum on Antony Loewenstein's My Israel Question at Kulcha Multicultural Arts of WA, organised by Project SafeCom, in collaboration with the Social Justice Network.

 :::CALL TO ACTION::: Monday 18 September 2006: A Planetary Emergency: Earth on the boil - this week, of all weeks in the year, seems a most opportune week to send you Project SafeCom's 'brand-new' publication - the brochure "From Climate Change to Climate Justice".

Another Project SafeCom Event!  6 September 2006: Fun, Laughter and other Seditious Causes - Make the right joke in public, and the man in dark glasses will follow you around town. Draw a cartoon, and find yourself in a secret court. Write a hot news article, and you might end up in jail. Deep, depressing issues or ... a seriously entertaining evening of Forum Theatre! Join Orisha's performers Rina Sani and Omar Pumar Romay for this special event at Kulcha.

 :::EVENT::: Saturday 29 July 2006: Israel in Palestine and Lebanon: March for Peace and Justice - We call for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and Gaza, and for the US and Australian governments to cease their support of the current bombing campaign.

Another Project SafeCom Event!  15 July 2006: Women in Black on Whitefella business: walking to Canberra - On 11 July 2006, three women started on a journey from Perth to Canberra, and this page contains some of the published information, their message to the Prime Minister John Howard and the Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough, and an open letter to all Australians.

20 June 2006: - Did the Cornelia Rau saga change refugee treatment? - For our event at Kulcha Multicultural Arts WA, Melbourne advocate Pamela Curr, the person who "found" her in the Baxter detention centre, asks whether the light which the Cornelia Rau case shone into the detention regime will make a difference to the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in Australia.

10 August 2006: World Refugee Day 2006: reports and pictures - World Refugee Day 2006 has passed us, and we look back at a spirited event at Kulcha Multicultural Arts of WA, with our guest Pamela Curr from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Melbourne.

 :::CALL TO ACTION::: 18 April 2006: Australia banishes all boat people ... it must be a joke!!! - A very serious request for your help: A scandalous and brutal Bill has been proposed by the Howard government to block all access to Australia of all asylum seekers arriving by boat, both for processing their claims and for settlement if these claims prove true.

15 May 2006: From the Boondocks of Narrogin to the WACOSS Conference - The paper 'Having a finger in the pie in Canberra from the boondocks in Narrogin' as well as 'Working with the issue of Fear and Public Policy' were Project SafeCom's two deliveries to the peak body's conference.

4 May 2006: At the 2006 WACOSS Conference - Project SafeCom's Jack Smit delivers two presentations at the 2006 WACOSS Conference at the Perth Sheraton Hotel. Both presentations promise to be lively, challenging and exciting, and will reveal many of the 'ways of working' of Project SafeCom's 'cutting edge' methodologies. This is the program page, and you can read the presentations on this page.

30 March 2006: Our Newsletter Survey: What you told us - In March 2006 we conducted a Poll amongst the subscribers to our highly regarded Project SafeCom News and Updates. This page outlines and analyses the results of that survey.

31 January 2006: Free West Papua, Let Them Stay! - A forum in Fremantle about the West Papuan asylum seekers and their reasons for the trip from Merauke to Weipa in Queensland with Senator Kerry Nettle, advocate Kaye Bernard, Project SafeCom's Jack Smit and Australian West Papua Association supporter Ned Byrne.

23 September 2005: The WA launch of Margo Kingston's Webdiary - In Fremantle Film and TV Institute's cinema, Web Diary's website will open. With high-profile speakers, politicians and Webdiarists, all applauding Margo's "divorce" from Fairfax.

23 September 2005: Report of the Webdiary and Club Chaos' Fremantle launch - with a speech by Carmen Lawrence MP: "I welcome this venture as the latest example of Margo Kingston's commitment to the ideal of quality journalism, a vital component of healthy democracy."

1 September 2005: Orisha International's Awakening of the Myth - Orisha International has generously offered one of its exquisite performances to Project SafeCom as a fundraiser during this year's annual tour of WA schools and communities. In turn, the Kulcha Multicultural Arts Centre in Fremantle has offered to host this performance.

18 June 2005: World Refugee Day Events in Fremantle - In collaboration with Amnesty International Australia and the Refugee Rights Action Network, we created a day for the entire family with 'Daybreak in Detention' and 'The Field of Hearts Project'. Come along and show your hearts and minds!

16 October 2005: Photos of our Fremantle World Refugee Day 2005 - During World Refugee Day weekend in 2005, we again had our stall and the Cage in a Daybreak in Detention event with Amnesty outside the Fremantle Markets in Fremantle. Here are the photos.

19 March 2005: Perth Social Forum: Don't Mention the Refugees - An open, guided and shared Forum by you - with Margo Kingston and Andrew Wilkie - at the Perth Social Forum in the Fremantle Town Hall. Included is the Movie Premiere of Dean Israelite's 'Spell Me Freedom'.

The Perth-made debut movie Spell Me Freedom5 March 2005: A Perth-made Debut movie: Spell Me Freedom - Spell Me Freedom is a remarkable movie debut by media students and refugees from Curtin University in Perth. "Spell Me Freedom ... signifies a first for an Australian movie where refugees as actors build, re-build and tell the story that should be told again and again to an Australian and international audience." Directed by Dean Israelite.

 :::CALL TO ACTION::: 10 February 2005 - The Cornelia Rau Inquiry: an emailed Call to Action - "Dear all, the Cornelia Rau Affair and the subsequent government inquiry announced by the Minister for Immigration Amanda Vanstone, should serve all Australians with some very serious food for thought." Sent widely through our contact network.

16 January 2005: The 2004 Changemakers Innovation Award - Project SafeCom prepared a submission for the 2004 Changemakers Innovation Award - an initiative of the US based Changemakers and Ashoka's Citizen Base Initiative (CBI). Preselection was due on 14 January 2005.

24 October 2004: A Canberra Rally: Stand up for Refugees - The re-election of the Coalition Government poses an enormous challenge for refugee activists. Yet it is one we must rise to meet. A page about a rally in Canberra on Tuesday 16 November 2004, the first sitting day of the new Parliament.

30 November 2004: Stand up for Refugees Canberra: the photos - Twenty-four photos of the Stand up for Refugees Rally on Parliament House on November 16, 2004, the opening day of the new Parliament. Project SafeCom was there, and we showed we want to be counted!

The 2004 Federal ElectionJan - Oct 2004: The 2004 Federal Election: Showing Conscience Parliamentarians - The red section on our website, with almost another 100 pages, is packed with facts and statements by politicians and with our suggested ratings for a Parliament for Refugees, all in the spirit of "WE shall determine who governs this country, and in which way they govern..."

Merlin the Magician at work11 September 2004:  MOVIE: Letters to Ali with Merlin Luck, the Big Brother Spoiler! - With Big Brother protester Merlin in Perth for just one day, our movie matinee where we screened Clara Law's Letters to Ali, snapping up Merlin Luck as the keynote speaker, became the only chance for people in WA to meet the refugee advocate who had rapidly become a national human rights defender while it also became the biggest screening of the movie's season for Luna On Essex in Fremantle.

Peter Qasim9 September 2004:  Australia's National Shame: Peter Qasim - Today will see a dismal anniversary marked across Australia, with the passing of six years in detention for a 30-year-old man from Indian Kashmir, Peter Qasim. Peter remains the longest detained asylum seeker in immigration detention, and following the recent Full High Court decision, there are no guarantees that he will not eventually die of old age in the future: he may remain in detention for the rest of his life.

2 September 2004: Betty Cuthbert and the Vietnamese Refugees - Olympic legend Betty Cuthbert 'stands up and runs with' The Hao Kiet Vietnamese Refugees: another high profile Australian has started barracking for refugees, and the statement by Project SafeCom stirs up residents on Christmas Island.

26 August 2004: Tampa Day 2004 in Perth - A page detailing four events taking place on 26 August 2004 in Perth, organised by several groups and organisations.

CARAD18 August 2004: Dinner with Alanna: A Children's Fundraiser for CARAD - Alanna Sherry is the coordinator and spokeswoman for ChilOut, and for a little while, Alanna is in Western Australia on a short holiday .... this Fundraiser aims at gathering funds for CARAD, used exclusively to help create possibilities for outings and other special things for the children of the Bridging Visa holding families.

16 August 2004: Two Refugee forums with Senator Andrew Bartlett - In Albany and Perth, 16 &18 August 2004, the Democrats lead us into debate of long-term mandatory detention of asylum seekers: the policy not only breaches multiple UN treaties, it goes against the principles of any decent and humane society. In Albany with Chilout's Alanna Sherry, Hazara refugees and Brian Greig.

Another Country :::RAFFLE::: 21 June 2004: 2004 World Refugee Day Raffle: Another Country, Sydney PEN's Refugee Anthology - Sydney PEN's anthology of refugee writing, Another Country, was launched by Australian actor Claudia Karvan on May 16 2004 at Gleebooks. Just one hundred copies of the Special Edition, signed by Rosie Scott and Tom Keneally, were issued, and we have one of FOUR for you. Page is still worth looking at, even while it closed on 30 June 2004: it includes a Sydney Morning Herald editorial and a good article by Sharon Verghis about the book.

Organised by Project SafeCom in collaboration with Oxfam and Amnesty International Perth19 June 2004: Three World Refugee Day 2004 events: a time of action for the entire family - For World Refugee Day 2004 we have combined forces with Amnesty International and Oxfam Community Aid Abroad for a great family day of local action in Fremantle. The day features the Daybreak in Detention project, The Field of Hearts, theatre at Deckchair (Something to Declare) and concludes with the screening of the movie The Deported. Review the program and come see us!!!

16 February 2004: A Refugee Defenders' Cruise - On Friday 20 February 2004, many "front-line refugee defenders" are in the Perth metro area, participants in the UWA Perth International Arts Festival. We have arranged for a boat cruise with Captain Cook Cruises from Perth City to Fremantle followed by some refreshments in "A Slice of Heaven" in Fremantle Harbour.

The Field of Hearts Project14 February 2004: The Field of Hearts project, the brainchild of Andrew Hall - Andrew Hall of Public Servants for Refugees in Canberra conceived it, and the momentum of this important project is building in preparation for World Refugee Day 2004, and the planned convergence on Canberra prior to the 2004 Federal Election. At Project SafeCom we're part of the action!

The dog that sat on the Tuckerbox20 January 2004: On the road to Gundagai: Our road trip through four States - During January and February 2004 we took 'our show' on the road, from Adelaide to Melbourne, Sydney to Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, before we descended on Albury-Wodonga for the second Annual RAR Conference: here's the itinerary. The trip weas widely supported by advocacy groups and organisations, and partly funded by the Myer Foundation. And, just for the proof, click on the image of the Dog on the Tuckerbox to see we actually made it to Gundagai!

Citizen X3 December 2003: Citizen X, dramatic theatre at Fremantle's Deckchair - We were part of the entire 2003 season with the Project SafeCom information stall. "This is a striking and heart-rending play that gives voice to the voiceless. The letters incorporated in the play, written from Woomera, Curtin, Port Hedland and Villawood, are vulnerable, confused, poetic, sometimes angry, sometimes resigned but always very human. And regardless of your opinion on detention centres for asylum seekers, these voices are worth hearing."

Click to visit the pages of our 2003 Symposium
The Cost, the Carnage and the Bill - a weekend symposium on asylum seeker policies, issues and implications at University of Western Australia with Julian Burnside QC, Dr Carmen Lawrence, Hassan Ghulam, Dr Louise Newman, Senator Andrew Bartlett, Greens Senator Kerry Nettle and lawyer Elizabeth Lacey. Moderated by former diplomat Bruce Haigh. Here's the link to the page.

20 June 2003: Project SafeCom's World Refugee Day 2003 comes to Bunbury - An event at Edith Cowan University's Bunbury Campus with two movies, including the clandestinely made Australia's Pacific Solution (BBC) and guest speakers, including local peace activist Liam Barry. In conjunction with BRAG, the Bunbury Refugee Action Group.

See the World Refugee Day Quiz!20 June 2003: Project SafeCom's 2003 World Refugee Day Aussie Tourist Quiz - On the occasion of 2003 World Refugee Day we developed The Aussie Tourist Quiz, a quiz designed for Australian politicians as well as overseas tourists. We designed this on-line Quiz for both Aussie tourists and Aussie politicians who could win prizes with the Quiz ... See the answers and the Quiz here!

24 January 2003: Australia's Pacific Solution: The BBC & Kate Durham undercover on Nauru - Project SafeCom's first ever, and major, screen event, featuring two screenings at the Fremantle Film and TV Institute, with Democrats Senator Andrew Bartlett and ALP Member for Fremantle Dr Carmen Lawrence. The event was attended by almost 200 people. This page is a 'retrospective' assembly of the various pages for the event.