THE Rector of a parish in Perth, the Revd Lorna Green, has
protested at being strip-searched by police after a recent peaceful
demonstration at the Perth office of the Australian Foreign
Minister, Julie Bishop.
Ms Green was part of a group of eight Christians, including a
Uniting Church Minister and pastors from other denominations,
protesting against plans by the federal government to transfer 25
babies, born to asylum-seekers in Australia, to detention on the
island of Nauru, in the South Pacific. All of the group were
strip-searched after their arrest. They will face court later this
month.
The group plan to complain about their treatment to the
Corruption and Crime Commission. The Uniting Church's Western
Australia Moderator, the Revd Steve Francis, said that the police
had "deliberately humiliated people engaged in a peaceful act of
civil disobedience". Strip-searching was an "offensive response to
Christian concern for the vulnerable", he said.
Ms Green said that she felt humiliated and outraged by her
treatment.