Business, Faith, Law & Morality: The Asylum Seeker Debate

• The Debate: Are Asylum Seekers an Economic opportunity or threat?
• How can large and small Business contribute to the Asylum Seeker debate?
• What is the role of Faith and a United Faith Community in the asylum seeker debate?
• Do we have a Moral obligation to assist Asylum Seekers?
• Is Australia's policy to discourage some Asylum Seekers Legal?

These question and more will be addressed by our panel of experts before the floor is open to a Q & A style debate. Have Your Say by joining us on the floor on the night.

About the Speakers:

• Alana Elias: Alana, her father and two children arrived by boat in 2001, the year of the Tampa. After release from detention they were dropped at Brisbane bus station with $200 between them. Since then Alana has completed her Masters as a RMIT scholar, and recently secured a leading role in Beijing. This will probably be one of the last opportunities to hear Alana before her departure. Prior Alana, Aoham Al-Dujayli, was living in Iraq. 
• Julian Burnside AO QC: Awarded a Sydney Peace Prize and nominated a National Living Treasure, Julian is a high profile barrister, committed to human rights, language lover, author, patron of the arts and so much more. Please visit Julian on www.julianburnside.com.au
• Jarrod McKenna: A peace award winning nonviolence trainer and innovator.  Jarrod was teaching pastor at Westcity church. His family live with 17 newly settled refugees at the First Home Project, an innovative community welcoming, housing project to empower refugees. He established Love Makes a Way and is currently on secondment from World Vision to Common Grace.
• Ivor Ries: Media identity and business guru.  Ivor worked as a journalist in Australia and overseas before writing the esteemed AFR Chanticleer.  Recently he has accepted senior and executive roles in business. He regularly appears as a guest on business programs.
• Rev Prof Andrew Dutney: President of the Uniting Church in Australia.  Singer, song writer and author, Andrew is widely published in ethics in both religious and mainstream publications and is a regular media commentator on ethics and on spirituality.
• Pamela Curr: Victorian Women’s Honour Roll. Pamela works at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. She is a regular contributor to ABC Drum, Crikey and other journals. She is one of Who’s Who Australian women.
• Ruth Bungay: Multi disciplined business consultant and economist. With a background in finance as a company analyst, pension fund management and venture capital, Ruth has visited, helped and analysed many companies across many industry sectors.

Have Your Say by joining us on the floor on the night. We hope you can attend.

Tickets and Donations: As with any enclosed space, tickets are limited, hence admission will only be by ticket which will be scanned for entry.  The tickets will be available online until the start of the debate or until all seats are allocated. (There will only be very limited resources dealing with emergency registration on the night at the venue, so please allow ample time if you have to choose this option.) Please bring your ticket to the venue for entry.

Lentara has kindly offered their facilities to collect the donation money for us, which will be distributed between the various charities listed above after the close of the event. Lentara has DGR so all donations are tax deductible.

Contact:asylumseekerdebatebflm@gmail.com (Please leave a phone number if you would prefer a text or wish to speak to someone and you will be contacted within 24 hours.)