Lydia Miller's Speech to the Palm Sunday March

I give my respect and honour the Gadigal and their ancestors on whose lands I speak.

Australia has been a land of migration since 1788. It is one of the most culturally diverse nations in the world today. It is a country where peace and justice prevail through the commitment of many people who believe that the rights and freedoms of human beings should be upheld.

Today is testimony to the strength and will of that commitment. Just as we as citizens of Australia expect our rights to be observed and for government to protect, promote and respect those obligations on our behalf, we also expect that our government acts with integrity and principle and political morality.

To date, they have not done so and that deceit causes us to register in a very public domain, our disapproval, our dissent and our objection to the manner by which racism has been employed to marginalise and diminish those refugees who are seeking freedom from persecution.

Australia has assumed an obligation to uphold the rights standards contained within the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights upon the signing of that Declaration in 1948. Effectively espousing the 'inherent dignity of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family...[as] the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world...without distinction of any kind such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status'. (Preamble UDHR: Article 2).

We have witnessed vilification and a deliberate protracted campaign against refugees upon the basis of race and national origin. Detained, ridiculed, demonised and dismissed, each and every man, woman and child. We may well ask where is our compassion, where is justice, but moreso where is our humanity.

It is not enough to espouse propaganda such as people 'queue-jumping' for the sake of some political hacks obsessed with their pursuit of power at any cost. Not when that cost is the dignity and right of members of the human family who have an inalienable right to seek asylum in another country from their place of origin. That is a basic human right.

They are not apart from us, not one Australian since 1788 can claim a moral superiority that asserts to reject those other world members who may wish to also make Australia their home.

We as citizens need to debate, dissent and disagree on the directions of government if they threaten our civil liberties and accordingly our rights and freedoms of which they are supposed to uphold. As well as the rights and freedoms of those of the rest of humanity. The disturbing aspect of most recent events is that if we are being conditioned by government propaganda not to trust any institution or each other, then what is the society we are being asked to live in, and whose society is it.

This is not participative democracy, this is a case of citizens being subjects. We live in dangerous times. Now more than ever, we need to demand that issues concerning our development as a nation or community need to be publicly debated and rigourously examined to ensure that they are not diminishing our rights and freedoms and ability to participate.

The participation of everyone is fundamental to evoke change in the Australian society so that we can enjoy a civil society that is cohesive, cooperative and recognises the inherent dignity of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family...[as] the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.

For the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.