AS MICHAEL HODGKIN marched, he chanted slogans against Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's new asylum seeker policy and, at one point, passed his placard to someone else so he could stream live video to a website that has viewers across the world.
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The 30-year-old Pialligo man, who sent the video to Occupy World News, was protesting against the new immigration policy alongside several hundred others.
''We're all boat people in Australia,'' Mr Hodgkin said. ''I came along because I worked for the Department of Immigration at one point and didn't like what I saw.''
The protesters chanted, ''Kevin Rudd you're empowered, we don't need another Howard,'' as they walked together from Woden Square to the nearby Southern Cross Club where ACT Labor members were meeting for their annual conference.
Mr Rudd's plan to send all those who arrive by boat to Papua New Guinea has been met with strong opposition from refugee and human rights organisations since being announced just over a week ago.
Hazara man Zishan Ali said Papua New Guinea did not have the resources to offer refugees a decent living.
''[Refugees] are not coming to Australia for the so-called economic incentives: they are escaping for their lives … state persecution and systematic genocide.'' PHILLIP THOMSON