Australia would accept 4,000 more refugees a year under a Labor government, but the opposition's commitment to boat turn-backs and offshore detention remains.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten made the announcements in his speech to the party's annual state conference in Adelaide.
"We understand that keeping our borders secure and keeping the people smugglers out of business should and has never meant leaving men, women and children to languish for years and years in indefinite detention in substandard facilities and unacceptable conditions," Mr Shorten told party faithful.
The expansion of a community-based refugee program from 1000 to 5000 places is part of a compromise deal between the party's dominant Left and Right factions to avoid a damaging public debate on asylum seeker policy.
A group called Labor4Refugees had tried to change the Labor Party's policy to "end all offshore detention" and cease turning back boats.
Labor would also commit an extra $500 million to the UN's refugee agency.
More to come.
