Australia has a solid record of protecting civil and political rights, with robust institutions and a vibrant press and civil society that act as a check on government power. However, the government's failure to respect international standards for asylum seekers and refugees continues to take a heavy human toll.

In 2015, Australia's practices of mandatory detention of asylum seekers, abuses related to offshore processing, and outsourcing of refugee obligations to other countries were heavily criticized by United Nations experts, foreign governments, and even some Australian government-funded inquiries.

However, senior government officials dismissed such criticism and even attacked and tried to discredit institutions such as Australia's Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and the UN. The government has also instituted overly broad and vague counterterrorism laws and has done too little to address indigenous rights and disability rights.

Asylum Seekers and Refugees

Australia outsources some of its obligations to asylum seekers and refugees to poorer, less well-equipped, and unsafe countries such as Nauru and Papua New Guinea (PNG). Australia has also returned several boats carrying migrants and asylum seekers to Sri Lanka and Vietnam, despite their poor rights records. Australia has also towed boats carrying asylum seekers back to Indonesia, endangering lives, and in May, Indonesian police and asylum seekers accused Australian officials of paying more than US$30,000 to people-smugglers to turn a boat back to Indonesia.

As of October 31, 2015, 929 asylum seekers and refugees were detained on Manus Island, PNG, while 621 were in a center on Nauru. Three years after Australia first started sending asylum seekers to PNG, not a single refugee had been resettled. In August, an asylum seeker detained on Manus Island for more than two years was persuaded and paid by Australian officials to return to Syria. He has said he was detained by intelligence officers upon arrival in Damascus, and in October, was injured by shelling.

The immigration department established an independent review of detention conditions in the Nauru center that found evidence that children and adults were sexually and physically assaulted. Thirty-three asylum seekers allege they have been raped or sexually assaulted at the center. A parliamentary senate inquiry found that the conditions on Nauru were “not adequate, appropriate or safe,” and recommended that all children be removed from the center as soon as possible.