Asylum seekers need safer pathways to protection and Australia should stop treating those who arrive by boat differently.
The nation has a reputation as one of the world's most successful multicultural societies, the president of the Australian Human Rights Commission says.
"But over the years, key parts of our refugee policies have hardened," Hugh de Kretser said.
"For those who have come across the seas seeking safety, Australia's policies remain amongst the harshest in the world."
Speaking at the UNSW Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law's 2025 conference on Thursday, Mr de Kretser praised some recent moves to protect refugee rights, including granting permanent protection to people on temporary visas.
Those intercepted at sea are turned back after cursory screenings that carry serious risk of returning people to harm.
Others are sent for "offshore processing" in Nauru, with well-documented human rights violations and associated suffering.
But in a "troubling new chapter" sparked by the High Court's NZYQ ruling that the government cannot indefinitely detain people without a valid visa, they're being joined by a new cohort.
Some had been jailed for serious crimes and subject to curfews and monitoring on their release.
Others had lesser convictions, and some had not committed any crime, Mr de Krester said.
Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network co-secretary general Hafsar Tameesuddin said governments needed to recognise the vast contributions made by refugees and migrants.
"I am sick and tired of hearing that refugees are the burden and we are sharing the burden," she said.
While the federal government is most commonly associated with refugee protection, state and local governments shoulder significant responsibility for supporting them with services and infrastructure.
Planning and investing, as well as preparing the people in communities where refugees would be re-settled, was "really important", Multicultural NSW deputy chief executive James Jegasothy said.
State governments need to ensure hospitals, roads and health care are accessible and available.
Local governments needed to provide "softer bits of infrastructure" such as places of worship, Mr Jegasothy said, to avoid taking taking people from somewhere they were scared to practice their religion to somewhere they could not practice it at all.
"It's hardly protection in the end (if) we're just taking them away from the danger," he said.
