Asylum seeker advocates are outraged by changes made to the Humanitarian Settlement Scheme, which would see all onshore adult refugees cut off from vital support networks.
The Humanitarian Settlement Scheme (HSS) gives refugees information on how access to public services like Medicare and public housing and schooling. It aims to help new arrivals slot in with the Australian way of life.
The changes to the scheme were part of the fine print of Labor's economic statement, made earlier in August, just days before the election date was announced.
It will save $28.4 million in 2013-14, and over $31 million in years following.
"Services of that nature always need to be reviewed and always need to be looked at," Immigration Minister Tony Burke says.
The refugee support community says the move will have profound implications for new arrivals.
"It's very short-sighted," Kon Karapanagiotidis says.
The founder of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre says restricting the HSS will mean thousands fall through the cracks of the welfare system.
"It's going to lead to us creating an underclass of people."
But changes to the HSS could be brought about due to Labor's new Papua New Guinea settlement deal.
"If you're going to resettle people in PNG, it would make sense to wind back resettlement services in Australia," Dr Kim Hyunh from the Australian National University says.
Dr Hyunh concedes there's a backlog of people waiting for processing here in Australia who arrived before the PNG deal was struck, so resettlement services will be required for some time to come.
The HSS will still apply to refugees who are processed offshore, via routes like the UNHCR.
Unaccompanied minors will also still have access to the service.
Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser greatly expanded Australia's resettlement services during the late 1970s, after the release of the Galbally Report.
Among its recommendations, the report pushed for more English classes so migrants could integrate into Australian society better.
Mr Fraser is disgusted by the rhetoric surrounding asylum seekers during the 2013 election campaign.
"It's the most demeaning political campaign I've ever seen," he told SBS.
"No party deserves to win."
Mr Karapanagiotidis agrees.
"We don't have an asylum seeker crisis, we have a crisis of [political] leadership."
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