The Anglican Bishop of Tasmania has spent today with state and federal politicians to call on those with parliamentary power to change asylum seeker policies in Australia.

Bishop John Harrower convened the forum at St David’s Cathedral this afternoon in the lead up to Refugee Week which begins on Sunday. He hosted the Premier, Lord Mayor of Hobart and Tasmanian Senators and Members of Parliament to discuss alternatives to offshore detention.

The Bishop says he sees it as his duty as a Christian to call out the Government on what he feels is an inhumane policy.

“I think it’s absolutely fundamental that the prophetic voice of the church speak into society… The Christian church has always been salt and light. I remember John Stott in one of his commentaries wrote, when the meat’s gone off, ask ‘where is the salt—where are the Christians?’ When the room is dark, I ask ‘where is the light? Where are the Christians?’ We’re called to be salt and light in the communities in which God has placed us so that we show the light of Christ to the world.”

The issue of immigration spending is of particular concern to residents of Tasmania, who have found themselves $2.1 billion worse off over the next decade as a result of the Federal Budget. Bishop Harrower says it makes no sense to be spending $4.2 billion on offshore detention in the next four years–an unjustified expense in his view–when Tasmanians are doing it tough.

“What we’ve tried to do is an economic pitch, a financial pitch, which is a different take to what we’ve done before. In Tasmania this has resonance. We’re trying to get a different angle on it, a Tasmanian angle, to engage the Tasmanian public and politicians. And I’ve been really pleased, people have responded and said, OK Bishop John, let’s talk.”

Bishop Harrower is the Patron of the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce, a coalition of Christian groups and leaders who have been calling on the government to show compassion to asylum seekers.

Misha Coleman from the ACRT says the contrast between the impact of the Budget on Tasmania and the cost of running offshore detention should be a wake-up call to the Government and thinks the money could be better spent.

“Spending money on the care of asylum seekers in Tasmania, instead of Nauru and Manus Island, would stimulate economic growth and provide jobs in Tasmania. And based on Tasmania’s record of caring for asylum seekers and refugees, we’d get a more ethical, humane and legal approach to the care of asylum seekers, as opposed to the cruelty that is being inflicted in the offshore camps”.

Image: Department of Immigration and Border Protection