Sign the petition at: http://greensmps.org.au/content/petition/minister-carr-spend-aid-alleviate-poverty-not-inhumane-detention

“Minister Carr: spend aid to alleviate poverty, not on inhumane detention

The Labor Government has just announced that around $400 million will be cut from foreign aid, and used to fund the cruel indefinite detention of vulnerable people who come to Australia seeking our protection.

Australians expect foreign aid to be spent on improving the lives of people where they live, not on punishing people for fleeing persecution and violence.

Onshore community assessment of the claims of asylum seekers is 90 per cent cheaper and 100 per cent more humane. Labor’s race to the bottom with Tony Abbott is costing lives, refugees’ mental health, billions of dollars – and now our commitments to alleviate poverty.

Labor needs to end this race to the bottom now. Sign our petition and we’ll take your call directly to them.

Dear Minister Carr, Australia needs to live up to our international obligations – and your government needs to live up to its promises. Please reverse your cuts to foreign aid, increase Australia’s aid budget to 0.7% of GNI in accordance with our Millennium Development Goals commitment, and spend every Australian aid dollar to alleviate poverty, not to prop up a failed and inhumane mandatory immigration detention system.”