An open response to the 'Law Students for Refugees' from the LSS leadership team

MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY LAW STUDENTS SOCIETY
Volume 8, Issue 10

De Minimis recently published an open letter from the organisation ‘Law Students for Refugees’, urging the Law Students’ Society to take a stance against offshore processing. This is the LSS’s response.

Dear Law Students for Refugees,

Thank you for your open letter in Volume 6 Issue 20 of De Minimis. We appreciate knowing that students are engaging with and care about what the LSS does and supports.
 
We first acknowledge that the LSS Leadership Team – composed of the President, Vice Presidents, Secretary, Treasurer and Sponsorship Director – are replying to your letter rather than the entire Elected Committee since, due to timing constraints, we were not able to compose a letter with input from every Committee member.

Your letter refers to the Committee’s vote that endorsed marriage equality, and asks for the LSS to take ‘a similar public stance’ against the offshore processing of asylum seekers by the Australian Government.
 
As you will know, the motion the Queer Officers proposed at our Committee meeting in support of marriage equality was primarily about endorsing the use of the LSS banner in the marriage equality rally. The rally instigated the statement in favour of marriage equality.
 
Therefore to maintain consistency with the approach our Committee has to this kind of endorsement, we would need to have a motion submitted to a Committee meeting that is tied to an event supporting your cause. This would then allow for the entire Elected Committee, and potentially the wider student cohort, to both deliberate on and participate in the endorsement.
 
We therefore ask the Law Students for Refugees to email lss-leadershipteam@unimelb.edu.au when such an event arises, with as much notice as possible so we are able to submit it as a motion and discuss the matter properly in one of our monthly Committee meetings.

Thank you again for your time and your engagement.
 
Warmly,
 
The LSS Leadership Team

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