Sister Jane Keogh, 78, has been advocating for refugees “pretty well every day” since the Tampa affair in 2001. While the work could be “very discouraging” at times and significant policy change was yet to occur, Keogh said, it was the ability to “give hope to some people who otherwise have no hope” that kept her going.
Receiving an AM for her advocacy, Keogh believed that Australia was “living with the weight of our inhumanity of our attitudes to refugees over these 20 years”. If she could say one thing to Australia’s political leaders, it would be: “Grow a heart, live off principles and recover our belief in human rights.”