Rally in support of free refugees

The Canberra protest was part of a national ''Day of Action'', with protests against the asylum seeker policies of the government and opposition occurring right across the country.

Speakers addressed the crowd from inside a mock detention centre, in the form of a cage set up on the stage.

Organiser John Minns, of the Refugee Action Committee in Canberra, said he did not expect to change either of the major parties' asylum-seeker policies before the election, but wanted to keep protest momentum up beyond September 7.

The politics lecturer at the Australian National University said there was a significant number of people in Canberra who were shocked by the government's policy and considered it wrong.

''For a long time, many of us were campaigning about various policies about refugees and it's been a small crowd, small numbers of people,'' he said.

''If there is a silver lining to what the government and the opposition have done, it's completely outraged a new section of community who are starting to ask themselves, 'what really are we doing here'?''

After about 45 minutes of speeches, the group left Garema Place to march to the offices of Labor MP Andrew Leigh and Liberal senator Gary Humphries, chanting ''free, free the refugees''.

Dr Minns said the attitudes of Canberrans towards asylum seekers may differ from those elsewhere in Australia.

''The response that I've had handing out leaflets … you very very rarely get a hostile response,'' he said. ''You actually get a lot of people agreeing.''