September 2026 The Refugee Council of Australia (RCOA) strongly endorses the NSW Human Rights Bill, and fully supports the Bill’s recognition that human rights apply to all individuals, regardless of where one is...
Submissions
The Refugee Council of Australia regularly makes submissions to inquiries and reviews on a wide range of issues affecting refugees in Australia. You can also search and find submissions by topic for the past two years here. (For older submissions, see our page on archived submissions below).Latest submissions
Refugee Council’s response to Attorney-General’s draft report to the UN Committee Against Torture
September 2026 RCOA’s submission highlights significant gaps in the Attorney-General’s draft report, including its limited consideration of the rights and treatment of non-citizens in immigration detention, offshore...
Shaping the future of employment services
August 2026 Employment services have the potential play a crucial role in supporting people from refugee backgrounds to make the transition to work in Australia. However, RCOA has consistently heard from refugee and...
Defending Australia’s Legacy: Why we need to safeguard our Humanitarian Program
Last week, RCOA submitted our response to the Australian Government discussion paper on Australia’s Humanitarian Program 2026-27 and beyond. The information provided and questions asked in the discussion paper signal...
Intake & archived submissions
Submissions on international issues
Submission on the New International Development Policy
This submission suggests how Australia’s international development strategy could play a central role in a shared strategy aimed at responding to the root causes of displacement and addressing the overwhelming obstacles...
Australia’s engagement in Afghanistan
This submission highlighted key issues relating to Australia's engagement in Afghanistan, including costs, the need for an emergency response, the impacts on disapora communities, and its impact on people from...
Submission on the Migration and Citizenship Legislation Amendment (Strengthening Information Provisions) Bill 2020
This submission opposes a Bil that would deny refugee applicants procedural fairness through a secretive Ministerial process which they would be unable to challenge. The Bill offends the principles of the rule of law...
Submission to the inquiry into strengthening Australia’s relationships with countries in the Pacific region
This submission recommends that the Committee considers the damage that Australia’s offshore processing policies have caused to our relationships with Nauru and PNG and to our standing in the Pacific region, and that...
