Starting from Wednesday, the annual national refugee conference attracts over 250 representatives to discuss how Australia could better support refugees.
The two-day conference has a strong line up of speakers, including Iranian Kurdish journalist and writer Behrouz Boochani, who was held in the Manus Island detention centre from 2013 and 2017. He's now living in New Zealand.
Some participants told SBS Examines they have learned a lot from the conference.
"What we get out of this conference is the voice of lived influence are amplified, and stories of resilience, success and endurance - how do refugee communities contribute positively to Australia, and not divide Australia."
"This conference has been an amazing initiative because it is about refugees coming through and it started as a volunteer (initiative), very much a volunteer movement and people at the grassroot level coming together to empower themselves."
Australia is one of the only 23 countries that accepted refugees for resettlement in 2021 through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
But each year, only one percent of the global refugee population could make the resettlement in a third country.
Last November, Australia recorded the arrival of one million refugees in the country.
Dr Gillian Triggs, former president of the Australian Human Rights Commission says, Australia has made an outstanding contribution to refugee resettlement
But she also says Australia still has a long way to go to improve its treatment to refugees.
"We also have some of the worst and draconian laws globally, which deny access to asylum, shift the burden for asylum seekers to Nauru, and of course in the past to Papua New Guinea, and law, which of course, recently has been struck down by the High Court as invalid."
One of the high-profile asylum seeking cases in recent months will be the Iranian women's football team.
An Iranian state broadcaster called them "traitors", after the team refused to sing Iran's national anthem at a game at the Asian Cup.
Some members of the Iranian refugee community thanked the government for supporting the women, but they also expressed frustration, as many in the community have been waiting for years for permanent visas.
Dr Triggs also welcomes the government's action for the footballers, but agrees that the government could have done better.
"It's a very political act rather than an act which reflects Australia's concern to ensure that those seeking asylum from Afghanistan, from Iran, from Sudan, from the Rohingyas, of course from Myanmar and many others."
On Tuesday [[March 24]] Greens Senator David Shoebridge and several Teal M-Ps teamed up to call on the government to fast-track visa processing for refugees.
Here's Monique Ryan, the member for Kooyong.
"I believe that Australia also want the government to support other people who have come to this country from Iran who are in equally desperate circumstances, particularly given the fact that they've been here for over a decade on bridging visas that lasted for six months over time, these people have been found to be refugees, and they deserve nothing less than the supportive and generous treatment the Australian government afforded the footballers."
The theme for this year's conference is "Empowering Refugees and Multicultural Communities Together", which explores pathways for refugees to advance multicultural leadership and amplify their voices.
Refugee Communities Association of Australia's Chair, Parsu Sharma Luital, says the Australian government needs to invest more in grassroot initiatives.
"What is lacking in empowering the refugee community is direct support for them. They support the big bodies, we don't mind about that. The government supports the big bodies, but then, big bodies are not grassroots. They do a lot of word work, policy research and submission, but the biggest area for refugee community and multicultural community is they are not adequately funded - not recognising in the bureaucracy of what grassroots offer."
He also calls for a holistic approach from the government over refugee matters - rather than just relying on one single department.
"If we get support from the government on those sorts of funding, and also in using and trusting us, not one department, I'm talking about every department, sometimes you find the departments are very negative, (for example) 'Refugees don't know how to run organisation, if you give the money to them, are they going to give us a proper financial report?' That thinking in the negative, in the bureaucrats, and also at the highest level, has to be changed."
