What the 2025-26 Federal Budget means for people seeking asylum
The 2025-26 Federal Budget has been handed down and the disparity between $20 million in financial support for people seeking… Read More
This Federal Budget is a final opportunity for the Albanese government to make good on its election promise to ensure people seeking asylum have access to appropriate social services, including income, crisis housing, and healthcare.
As the Budget is handed down on Tuesday 25 March, the rising cost of living and the structural dismantling of a safety net for people seeking asylum have collided to create a rapidly escalating poverty crisis.
This crisis is at odds with the Labor Party’s national platform heading into the 2022 Federal Election, which outlined that under a Labor government, people seeking asylum would have means-tested access to appropriate social services, including income, crisis housing, healthcare, mental health, education, and more.
Here’s what the Asylum Seekers Centre is hoping to see in the upcoming Budget.
Financial support for people seeking asylum
People seeking asylum are automatically disqualified from mainstream income support services such as Centrelink. Instead, very few are eligible for the flawed and dwindling Status Resolution Support Services (SRSS) program, which caps the highest level of support at around 89 per cent of the Newstart allowance.
Over the past eight years, successive governments have cut funding for the SRSS program from $369.7 million in 2016-17 to a $17 million in 2024-25. The strict eligibility criteria locks many vulnerable people out of a safety net, with only around 2 per cent of people seeking asylum receiving SRSS.
This Federal Budget, we must see increased funding for the SRSS program to ensure people seeking asylum in crisis, including those at the post-review stage, get access to the basic support they need.
Access to crisis housing
The lack of affordable housing in Australia disproportionately impacts people seeking asylum.
They face significant barriers to securing sustainable housing, including language barriers, little to no Australian rental history, limited knowledge of the Australian housing market, and an inability to sign longer-term lease agreements due to the uncertain nature of their visa status.
The homelessness crisis among people seeking asylum is well documented and the Asylum Seekers Centre has observed a significant rise in community members presenting in crisis due to homelessness and destitution.
The Federal Budget should include additional funding to states and territories to support people seeking asylum with access to emergency and temporary accommodation because the criteria should be on the degree of need, not visa status.
Consistent healthcare access
Australia’s healthcare system is meant to be universal and yet thousands of the most vulnerable people in our society are being left out, with the Refugee Council of Australia estimating as many as 30,000 people seeking asylum may not have access to Medicare.
Medicare enrolment is tied to visa status, meaning when a person seeking asylum’s bridging visa expires and they receive a new visa, they must re-enroll in medicare – a process that can take many months.
The government must provide ongoing access to Medicare to people seeking asylum for the duration of their protection visa application process and grant those with a disability access to NDIS payments.
Permanency for people failed by ‘fast track’
Thousands of people seeking asylum who arrived in Australia by sea have been failed by the inaptly-named ‘fast-track’ system and are trapped living in limbo for more than a decade.
The Labor party has acknowledged this system is unfair, calling for the abolition of the ‘Fast Track’ review in its 2021 platform and saying it “does not provide a fair, thorough and robust assessment process for persons seeking asylum”.
This Budget must see urgent funding to provide pathways to permanency for all people failed by the ‘fast track’ system. After more than a decade, their home is here.
Increased humanitarian intake
Leading up to the 2022 election, Albanese’s Labor promised increasing the humanitarian intake to 27,000 people per year, with 10,000 additional places set aside for community sponsorship and other complementary pathways.
As we head into an election off the back of this Budget, we expect to see the government deliver on its promise and increase Australia’s annual humanitarian intake to 27,000 people per year.
End offshore detention
Australia’s cruel offshore detention regime remains well-funded with the 2024-25 Federal Budget allocating $604 million for offshore processing on Nauru.
This regime has caused, and continues to cause, irreparable harm to thousands of people seeking safety.
At the start of this year, the UN Human Rights Committee found that Australia violated the rights of people, including of children, through inhumane offshore detention on Nauru.
It is time for the Albanese government to end offshore detention for good. This Federal Budget, we want to see a commitment to end the regime and bring Australia in line with its international human rights obligations.
