Musician and Vocalist
Mark Seymour is an Australian musician and vocalist best known for his work as the frontman and songwriter of rock band Hunters & Collectors.
“The ASRC. takes a direct, hands-on approach to the welfare and protection of asylum seekers in our community, in the face of the overwhelmingly selfish and capricious policies of containment and punishment that are being dished out to them by our federal government.
In the face of this, I am deeply impressed by the professionalism and courage of the ASRC, but above all, its fiercely independent spirit.
As a proud Australian, I believe we are a fundamentally generous, optimistic people who have the capacity to embrace the world around us in a positive and compassionate way. The idea that we should be suspicious of people arriving here uninvited, contradicts the very nature of our origins. We are a nation of immigrants. In fact, many of my ancestors had no choice in the matter of coming here but made good just the same. I believe that by definition ‘asylum seekers’ are driven to find shelter in the same way, so I identify with them very deeply.
We are living in dangerous times. Australia is being manoeuvred into a state of isolation by political forces who are using ‘Asylum seekers’ as a national scapegoat to distract the public from a broader conservative agenda.
I want to stand beside the ASRC in its work to dispel the rising tight of hate speech we are witnessing in this country”.