Labor is calling on the government to release a “secret report” into refugee resettlement in Australia, accusing the Coalition of treating the community with contempt.
On Sunday Nine papers published that the report, undertaken by a former bureaucrat, Peter Shergold, encouraged the government to create a “more positive narrative” on refugees, and warned against a shift towards selecting refugees on a work-ready basis rather than on humanitarian need.
The report was completed in February, but the immigration minister, David Coleman, is refusing to release it, despite the opposition and others, including Guardian Australia, trying to get it under freedom of information laws.
When the review was commissioned by the prime minister, Scott Morrison, in December, he said Shergold would recommend policy improvements and “better ensure refugees and humanitarian entrants can make valuable contributions to our society and our economy”.
Guardian Australia understands Coleman does not intend to release the report until the end of the year when it is expected to be published along with the government’s response.
Labor’s assistant immigration spokesman, Andrew Giles, said taxpayers had paid for the work that was aimed at improving the integration, employment and settlement outcomes of refugees in this country.
“Refugees have too often lived incredibly painful and dangerous lives, and when they settle in Australia we should be doing everything we can to help people get the support they need, find work and integrate into the community,” he said.
“Failing to release this report is treating the public with contempt, as well as letting down refugees and our communities.”
According to details published on Sunday, Shergold recommended more funding be allocated to better tailor settlement services to individual refugees and their families, and to bring together services in central locations.
The review also criticised the way settlement services for the 18,750 refugees who come to Australia each year under the United Nations-assisted humanitarian resettlement program are coordinated.
The Settlement Council of Australia has told Guardian Australia there was a hope the “closely guarded” report would lead to more integrated services.
“We think it will have quite big implications for the sector … and how it’s funded,” said its chief executive, Tammy Wolffs.
“There was a shake-up recently of the way settlement services have been funded and we can see there are better opportunities for integration and funding of settlement services, and the services and opportunities our sector can provide to refugees and other migrants who come through.”
• On 30 September 2019 the photograph on this article was replaced. The previous image was wrongly captioned and included people not relevant to the story.
