Repeal vote delayed: there’s still time to act
30 November 2019
The vote to repeal the life-saving Medevac law should have happened this week. It is now listed for Monday, 2 December 2019 for the Senate.
What you can do
1. Sign the GetUp petition
And stand with doctors, medical whistleblowers and Australia’s peak medical bodies as they call to #SaveMedevac. Sign the petition.
2. Email your state Senators
Ask them to vote for decency and say no to the repeal of the Medical Transfers Bill.
Find email address for:
ACT Senators NSW Senators NT Senators Qld Senators
SA Senators Tasmanian Senators Victorian Senators WA Senators
The Canberra Vigil
The November overnight vigil in Canberra organised by RAR
In November we’ve saw rural Australians and community members camping out on the lawns of Parliament in an overnight vigil, rallies across the country and 13 of Australia’s peak medical bodies renewing calls to #SaveMedevac.
Thousands of GetUp members chipped in to broadcast a hard-hitting TV ad featuring medical whistleblowers including war veteran and former Senior Medical Officer Dr Nick Martin across the country.
War veteran and former Senior Medical Officer on Nauru, Dr Nick Martin
from the TV ad funded by thousands of GetUp members.
The Undecided
(From the GetUp team)
Now critical politicians like Senator Jacqui Lambie are still undecided, forcing the Government to push back the vote. Together, we’ve bought another 10 days. Now, we need to make them count.
The Morrison Government and Minister Peter Dutton have been spinning lines and lies for months about Medevac – claiming veterans oppose the law, that floods of people would arrive and that people aren’t actually sick despite Dutton approving nearly everyone for transfers without any review.1 2 3 They’re going to do everything they can to tear this law down.
But we’re ready to fight, because we know it should be doctors, not politicians, who decide the medical treatment for patients detained offshore. And the only way that happens is if Medevac stays.
References:
[1] Peter Dutton tells Lambie that war veterans want medevac laws scrapped, The Guardian, 17 October 2019.
[2] Doctors reject claims of flood of asylum seeker transfers, SMH, 14 February 2019
[3] Panel of ‘medevac’ doctors backs minister, Nine News, 14 October 2019.
