Rev Doc Geek

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…

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, stepped up what the Daily Mail described as his ‘war of words with the government over welfare’ today, challenging Government ministers over food banks and their derogatory language about people in poverty.

Dr Welby’s riposte to Lord Freud on foodbanks

Dr Welby’s comments came in an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme this morning (9 July).  He specifically challenged Government minister Lord Freud who suggested last week there was an “almost infinite demand” for the free food supplied by food banks.

The Archbishop questioned where Lord Freud “got his information from” on food bank use after the welfare reform minister was reported last week as saying: “It is difficult to know which came first – supply or demand.”  Mr Welby highlighted Church analysis that showed that in Durham 35 per cent of people using food banks were referred by social services because they…