Amish 'cousins' fight for right to stay in Australia - National - www.smh.com.au

Amish 'cousins' fight for right to stay in Australia - National - www.smh.com.au: "Amish 'cousins' fight for right to stay in Australia
By Alex Mitchell
March 6, 2005
The Sun-Herald

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Model citizens ... Bruderhof community children with their teacher.
Photo: Lee Besford
Members of a Christian-based religious group living as a community in northern NSW are being threatened with deportation by the Federal Government.
The 80-strong Bruderhof community, founded at Inverell in 1999 and now a thriving part of the local business community, has appealed for help to stop forced deportations.
Northern Tablelands independent MP Richard Torbay has called on Prime Minister John Howard and Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson to halt the Immigration Department's 'wrong-headed' attitude to 'these model citizens'.
About 30 Bruderhof members have already been deported to their original homes in the US and Britain.
'Our members don't fit the very restrictive criteria being operated by the immigration authorities,' said Randy Gauger, an American from Pennsylvania who co-founded the Inverell community six years ago. 'We would like the authorities to give us a fair go and we would like them to consider a mechanism for a group like ours.'
He complained that Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone had declined to meet a deputation from the community despite months of letter-writing and lobbying.
Mr Torbay said the Bruderhof community, spiritual cousins of the Amish and Mennonite groups in the US, had made an invaluable contribution to the economic and social life of the Inverell district.
It has invested $9 million in buying 4300 hectares near "...