Republican News · Thursday 17 October 2002

Australian leaders lobby Blair

In a statement sent to Tony Blair last week from the Maritime Union of Australia's national office, leading Australian figures last week called on the British prime minister to stand by the Good Friday Agreement and the institutions. The letter was endorsed by 14 Australian MPs; seven Trade Union leaders, including the national leaders of the building, mining, maritime, and energy unions, representing around 500,000 workers; and leaders from the Aboriginal and Irish communities in Australia.

The leaders urged Blair "to stand firmly by the power sharing terms of the Good Friday Agreement and the institutions established under it. We believe that the present crisis has been deliberately contrived by the Unionist leadership to undermine and destroy political reform and power sharing. We urge your government to honour all the commitments made in the Good Friday Agreement and not allow the Unionists to exercise a veto on political reform that they have no right to...

"We urge you to reject Unionist pressure to exclude Irish republicans from power sharing and we urge you not to suspend the democratic institutions established under the Good Friday Agreement."