Right now, 15,000 people are living in deep poverty while seeking asylum in Australia.

Help us secure them a safety net.

The Australian Government’s Status Resolution Support Services (SRSS) Program offers that basic safety net, providing people seeking protection in Australia with minimal but vital assistance of just $42 a day. The SRSS Program replaced the support program for people seeking asylum first introduced by the Howard Coalition Government in 2006.  

The SRSS program provides a basic living allowance (capped at 89% of the JobSeeker allowance), very limited casework support and sometimes access to torture and trauma counselling. 

It’s not a lot, but it can help people escape deep poverty and homelessness.  

Tragically, the program has been cut by 94%, or over $280 million, in recent years. The number of people assisted has dropped from more than 29,000 in 2015 to just 1,600 now. 

Please help us change this by emailing your MP and asking them to call on the Minister for Immigration, Andrew Giles, to expand SRSS eligibility so these 15,000 people can access this basic safety net.

No legal amendments are necessary. No regulatory change is needed. And there’s no need to go before Parliament. The Minister simply needs to instruct the Department of Home Affairs to redesign the SRSS program to be a true safety net for those in need and expand the eligibility criteria so the 15,000 people currently in urgent need can access this safety net.

Please email your MP today about urging the Minister to make this simple, yet hugely impactful change.

Human Rights Watch

January 12, 2023

Taliban authorities, since taking power in August 2021, have broadly imposed rules and policies that deny women and girls their basic rights and crush peaceful dissent, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2023. The Taliban’s blanket disregard for rights has contributed to their global isolation even as Afghanistan’s economic and humanitarian crisis worsened.

In March 2022, the Taliban backtracked on a pledge to reopen girls’ secondary schools, the vast majority of which were closed after the Taliban takeover. They closed universities to women and girls in December. Taliban security forces violently dispersed women’s protests, detaining a number of protesters. The authorities also announced rules requiring women, including TV newscasters, to cover their faces in public and stipulating that male family members would be punished if women violated rules for their movements and dress.   Read more