30 Arrested at Darling Harbour Protest
By Ben Cubby February 7, 2002
30 people were arrested outside a Liberal Party function at Darling Harbour on a busy Friday night, as they demonstrated against mandatory detention of asylum seekers.
150 protestors blocked the entrance to the exclusive Dockside restaurant for an hour, denying Liberal supporters access to a 1,000-dollar-a-head fundraising dinner in honour of federal immigration minister Phillip Ruddock.
The incident began at 6.15pm, when protestors gained access to the second-story concourse around the Cockle Bay building.
Police asked them to leave, but they voted to stay, chanting "No dinner for Phil", and "Lock up Ruddock, free the refugees".
Hundreds of bemused weekend partygoers looked on, as protestors and about 35 police became locked in a rugby-style scrum on the 4 metre wide concourse.
Members of the police special operations group - the riot squad - arrived at about 6.45pm, and scuffles broke out as individual protestors were hauled off to police wagons.
Several witnesses claimed that police, together with the venue's private security guards, used excessive violence to break up the protest.
"They were throwing people down the escalators," said Fiona Millington, 36, a nurse who saw the protest. "I saw an old woman, maybe over 60, who was being dragged along by her hair".
Among those arrested was Ian Rintoul, 49, spokesman for the Sydney-based Refugee Action Coalition, a pro-refugee lobby group.
Before his arrest, Mr Rintoul had called on minister Ruddock to close down Australia's detention camps and branded him "minister for racism and misery".
"If the Liberals miss their dinner, it's a small price to pay for what Ruddock has inflicted on Iraqis, Iranians, people in detention. We represent the real democracy in Australia today," Mr Rintoul said.
Protestors lit nine candles for the nine asylum seekers who have died in detention in Australia since 1996.
A tenth candle was added mid-way through the rally when it became known that another detainee, believed to be a man from Afghanistan, had committed suicide earlier in the day. By 8pm, an hour later than planned, the waiting Liberal Party supporters began to file into the function.
Several guests forcefully stated that the protestor's views' did not represent the majority of Australians.
Their opinions seemed to be partly reinforced moments later by a bizarre incident, in which a diner at an adjacent restaurant assaulted refugee activist Alex Broun.
The unnamed diner stole Mr Broun's megaphone and bashed him over the head with it before running off through the Friday-night crowds. Police are investigating the incident.
The Liberal Party function, organized by NSW Liberal leader John Brogden, celebrated the fact that Philip Ruddock became Australia's longest-serving immigration minister on the 16th of January 2003.
Mr Ruddock was first made immigration minister on 11th March 1996.
Mandatory detention of asylum seekers was introduced by the Keating Labor government in the early 1990’s, and greatly expanded when the Liberal federal government came to office in 1996.
The policy has been strongly criticised as inhumane by sections of the Australian community.
1,176 people were being held in detention at the start of 2003. By far the biggest detention centre is at Villawood in Sydney, which houses 477 people.