Over 160 community, charity, multicultural and migrant organisations have written to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese warning that reported plans to remove work rights from people seeking asylum would force thousands of people into destitution and place enormous new pressure on already overstretched charities and community organisations.

Parliament in Canberra is in the midst of another interminable break, but it's been a big week in politics, with the departures from public life of Dan Andrews and Mike Pezzullo, Warren Mundine and Noel Pearson crossing swords at the National Press Club, and the tabling of the epic Disability Royal Commission Report.

A community battered by natural disasters and COVID is still finding room in its heart for refugees and asylum seekers, according to Ballina Region for Refugees Vice President Stanley Yeo.

Ballina Region for Refugees [BRR]has highlighted the dubious anniversary this week by again calling on Northern Rivers’ locals to write to politicians demanding an end to detention for people who found to be genuine refugees.

Ninety men have been in hotels and other types of detention across Australia since 2019 after spending six years on Manus or Nauru islands.

Sponsoring refugees to settle in Australia could be on the cards if the Community Refugee Sponsorship Initiative (CRSI) pilot program, that Ballina Region for Refugees (BRFR) is participating in, is successful.

The Great White Father has arrived on the far-flung atolls of the Pacific. Like the missionaries before him, Scott Morrison is delivering the bringing of the light -- a gospel of hope and salvation. Well, up to a point. Boiled down, his message is that if they are worried about the rising waters, they should sandbag the foreshores and move to higher ground (if there is any), because he is not going to do anything substantial to help.

Saudi Arabia is attempting to force 18-year-old Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun to return to the country after being apprehended in Thailand en route to Australia where she had hoped to seek asylum.