For broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 28 July 2013.
Australian church leaders have strongly opposed the Rudd Government’s “PNG solution” designed to reduce the number of asylum seekers coming to Australia by boat.
The Australian Churches Refugees Taskforce said, “Shifting the burden and sending people to stay in a malaria-ridden island with almost no supports is not an acceptable alternative to protection.”
A Catholic Church spokesman said, “We have the duty as members of one human family to help those who arrive on our shores seeking asylum and to strive with all our resources to assist them no matter how inconvenient this may prove to be.”
A statement from the Baptist Churches of NSW & ACT said:
Every person seeking asylum is created in God’s image and is loved unconditionally by God, and Christians have an obligation to demonstrate this same love toward asylum seekers through compassion, advocacy and hospitality … we should welcome and assist them to make a new life in the country of their choice.
I’m Rod Benson for the NSW Council of Churches.
NSW Council of Churches 
And the Uniting Church has issued multiple media releases, information booklets, fact sheets and today’s OpEd from the President:
http://www.unitingjustice.org.au/refugees-and-asylum-seekers/news/item/926-gross-failure-compassion-asylum-seekers
http://www.unitingjustice.org.au/refugees-and-asylum-seekers/news/item/927-mr
http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2013/07/26/3811617.htm
http://www.unitingjustice.org.au/refugees-and-asylum-seekers/information-and-action-resources/item/928-regional-resettlement-arrangement-fact-sheet
All churches are horrified by the latest round of policy changes.
Posted by Richard Thompson | July 26, 2013, 2:01 pmIt is inconceivable that any Australian would send already traumatized people to a dysfunctional country like PNG. To my mind, the puts Kevin Rudd and his backers in the same category as the Governments from which these people are escaping…escape Saddam Hussein or Robert Magabe or the Taliban or the regime in Iran…and fall into the hands of Kevin Rudd!
Posted by Kevin Edwards | July 29, 2013, 12:48 pm