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RACS ANNUAL REPORT 2013/14 4 OUR VISION, PURPOSE AND VALUES VISION Asylum seekers and refugees who seek Australia’s protection are able to live their lives with dignity, security, family unity and freedom. PURPOSE RACS is an independent Community Legal Centre whose purpose is to provide a free, specialist legal service for asylum seekers and refugees. Through individual advice sessions, community education and public advocacy, RACS strives to ensure that individuals and families at risk of persecution or other forms of significant harm, gain access to equal and fair representation before the law and are granted protection by Australia and given opportunities to seek family unity, in accordance with Australia’s international obligations. VALUES RACS’ work is premised on a commitment to fundamental human rights, human dignity and international protection. RACS demonstrates this commitment through its independent, impartial and professional advice; the integrity of its staff and volunteers; its belief in continuous learning, including through partnerships with other organisations; and the fair and flexible conditions it provides for staff and volunteers. A GLANCE AT OUR YEAR Despite losing the majority of our funding, RACS managed to provide legal assistance to more asylum seekers than ever. 472 730 Face-to-Face Advice Sessions 2977 Telephone Advice Sessions New Cases Represented Clients 2509 Clients assisted from 87 different countries
HUMANITY OVER POLITICS 5 PRESIDENT’S FOREWORD This has been a year of change for RACS. The Federal Government has removed the bulk of our funding and the Minster has put a stop to much of our case work outcomes. Successive attempts to introduce temporary protection visas have resulted in delayed outcomes for many of RACS’ clients, and for the over 25,000 asylum seekers presently in Australia there remains no permission to lodge even an application for protection. The need for our services, however, has never been greater as RACS is one of the few organisations still providing legal assistance for refugees and asylum seekers. As discussed below in the Report, we have responded to these changes by altering the way we are funded (through private rather than government support) and by developing new ways of helping our clients. We could not have done this so decisively without the work and support of many people. The Management Committee publically thanks our committed and diligent staff who worked so hard in difficult circumstances. We thank in particular our Director Tanya Jackson-Vaughan for her inclusive and effective style of management and the Principal Solicitor for much of this time, Katie Wrigley, who worked so hard to develop new programmes of support and to maintain our high standards of legal service. Of course our solicitors, senior and junior, also played a crucial role in this - Natalie Young, Radhika Kumar, Ali Mojtahedi, Jemma Hollonds, Scott Cosgriff, Rachael Pliner, Sylvia Arzey, Sharara Attai, Sarah Dale, Julia Steward, Elyse Trotter, Melissa Cicak, and our seconded Solicitors Tess Deegan, Jessie Porteus, and Joshua Strutt. Instrumental in moving us towards new funding arrangements is our Fundraising Manager, Andrew Kelly. Most striking here is his and Tanya’s successful application to the Vincent Fairfax Foundation. This Foundation has agreed to match our fundraising with 33 cents for every dollar we raise up to $660,000 over two years. We are of course very grateful for this support and for the Foundation’s show of confidence in us. In our work we were greatly assisted by the provision of secondees by Allens Linklaters, King and Wood Mallesons and Norton Rose Fulbright and by the generous support in other ways from Gilbert and Tobin. The pro bono assistance of Henry Davis York, KPMG and JusticeConnect was also indispensable. And we could not be so productive without the generous help of our many volunteers, legal and non-legal. We thank all of you. This year we introduced a number of new programmes linking our work with other organisations and we should note here the support we have received from the Australian Human Rights Commission, Auburn City Council, Australian Red Cross, Amnesty International, the Asylum Seekers Centre, House of Welcome, Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors, NSW Legal Aid Commission, IARC, Settlement Services International, Marist Youth Care, United Care Burnside and Justice Connect. In September 2014, the Government set out in new legislation to regulate onshore refugees and asylum seekers. As discussed below, we can expect temporary protection visas, fast assessment processes with reduced review rights, expanded removal powers, narrower understandings of who is a refugee, less rights for children and a cap on the number of protection visas granted in any one financial year. Most of these changes will be retrospective as well as prospective. Clearly, to negotiate this bleak world our clients will need more rather than less assistance. We are determined to provide this, and to do so we will need the continuing support of the “Friends of RACS”. Arthur Glass
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