Refugee law and policy in Australia sits within a complex, convoluted, and highly controversial immigration system. Australia’s harsh policies pertaining to refugees and people seeking asylum have been condemned both domestically and internationally by the UN Human Rights Council, Committee against Torture, and the High Commissioner for Refugees, as well as countless organisations, nations and individuals.

Despite this, many of these policies – offshore processing, Operation Sovereign Borders and boat pushbacks, onshore mandatory detention, the legality of indefinite detention– continue to have bipartisan support in the Australian parliament. Although, one notable change since the 2022 Federal Labor election has been the announcement that 19,000 refugees in Australia- who have for the past decade been granted only temporary protection visas ...