Letter from Scott Parkin

The US peace act­iv­ist depor­ted from Aus­tralia fol­low­ing a secret determ­in­a­tion that he was a threat plans to chal­lenge this assess­ment and needs funds. For those who don’t know, Scott was on his way to teach a non-viol­ence work­shop when he was detained by ASIO, trans­ferred to Carlton police sta­tion and from there to a deten­tion centre and then given the choice to stay there indef­in­itely while appeal­ing or be depor­ted. He chose to be depor­ted and was charged $15,000 or so for the priv­ilege of his deten­tion (you did know that we charge detain­ees by the day, didn’t you? Yes, even those sub­sequently found to be refugees…)

Dear Broth­ers, Sis­ters, Friends and Supporters,

Thanks so much for your mes­sages of sup­port over the past few months. There have been many who have fought with their feet, their pens, or with their paint brushes. All are valu­able in this battle, and each is deeply appre­ci­ated by my family, my friends and myself. I thank you all.

I am sorry for the late reply. Since my deten­tion and removal, I have received hun­dreds of solid­ar­ity emails, and as you can ima­gine, it’s been crazy times! I wish I could reply to each and every one of you per­son­ally. I really appre­ci­ate your gen­er­ous offers of sup­port and I hope it’s not too late to take you up on them.

We need to raise funds
This week, my law­yers have filed suit in the Fed­eral Court to quash ASIO’s assess­ment of me. This will not be an easy or inex­pens­ive pro­cess. The legal fees and court costs will run into the tens of thou­sands of dol­lars, but it is some­thing that needs to happen sooner rather than later.

A new organ­iz­a­tion of amaz­ing friends, Friends of Scott Parkin, has formed to cam­paign for me while I am barred from Aus­tralia. Funds raised by Friends of Scott Parkin will sup­port a legal, polit­ical and media cam­paign to clear my name. I hope that this will help to pre­vent others from being treated as I have in the future.

If every­one was to con­trib­ute even just $20 and tell all their friends, we would be so much closer to a win­nable legal chal­lenge. Please send con­tri­bu­tions for this cam­paign (pay­able to Friends of Scott Parkin Inc.), to:

Friends of Scott Parkin
PO Box 2152
Fitzroy, VIC 3065

Or visit http://​www​.scot​tpar​kin​.org to find out how to donate through any bank.

We need to hold the Aus­tralian gov­ern­ment accountable
The Inspector-Gen­eral of Intel­li­gence and Secur­ity (IGIS), Ian Car­nell, recently repor­ted on his inquiry into ASIO’s hand­ling of my case.

Mr Carnell’s report con­firmed that the ”marble throw­ing” alleg­a­tions repor­ted in The Aus­tralian news­pa­per shortly after I was depor­ted from your coun­try were com­pletely false.

It also showed that ASIO’s assess­ment was based on a secret ”determ­in­a­tion” issued by the head of ASIO in 1990. Unfor­tu­nately, we aren’t allowed to know what was in this ”determ­in­a­tion”!

The other thing we aren’t allowed to know is exactly what ASIO believes I have said or done that con­sti­tutes such a threat to your coun­try. Mr Car­nell acknow­ledged that this amounts to a denial of nat­ural justice, but still chose to keep this inform­a­tion secret.

I am writ­ing to the Attor­ney-Gen­eral, Philip Rud­dock, to ask that he tell me what I am sup­posed to have done, and I hope you can write to him too. 

Please write to Mr Rud­dock and ask:

* Why won’t he tell me what I’m sup­posed to have done wrong?
* How can I defend myself against alleg­a­tions that remain secret?
* What is in the ”1990 Determ­in­a­tion” referred to by Mr Carnell?
* When will the review of this Determ­in­a­tion take place?

You can find Mr Ruddock’s address and fax number and a letter to use as a start­ing point at http://​www​.scot​tpar​kin​.org.

Thanks again for your mes­sages of sup­port over the past couple of months — they still mean a lot to me. Another world is possible!

In struggle and solidarity,

Scott Parkin

PS: Sorry to hear the new anti-terror laws were passed. I hope that your demo­cratic rights can still be protected.