Our 24-year story…
RAR was founded in 2001 by women in the Southern Highlands (NSW) in response to the outrage of the Tampa crisis.
Twenty years later, we are now an active network of 75 groups and thousands of volunteers throughout rural and regional Australia.
Our groups function autonomously but are supported and guided by a central national committee that was formed in 2017.
“We unite with Australia-wide campaigns to fight to bring lasting change to policy and treatment of people seeking refuge and asylum in Australia”
Our Aim…
We want to see Australian government policy reflect the values of Australian society – fairness, respect, dignity and decency. We want human rights policy enshrined in law in order to protect the rights of people seeking asylum in this country. As members of a global community, RAR is driven by our responsibilities to international law and to humanity.
We want to see an end to indefinite detention and off-shore processing centres. We want to see the Australian government invest in rural and regional communities to facilitate the settlement of refugees who choose to make the country Australia their home. We want Australia to work with our Asia Pacific neighbours to find cooperative solutions to the flow of refugees in the region.
2024 Annual General Meeting
The 2024 AGM was held at Kyneton Town Hall October 11th. The Annual Reports were presented and the National Committee for 2024 - 25 were elected. Jonathan Strauss (Vice President) and Louise Redmond (Secretary) both stepped down after many years service. Paul Dalzell remained RAR National Committee President. Kathie Herbert is the new Secretary, Suzie Don Leonard is Assistant Secretary. Marian Shanahan continues as Treasurer and Sandy Watson from Trentham RAR joined the National Committee as Communications Convenor. Margaret Manning continues as Membership Liaison. Robert Kann from Welcome to Maleny has become Assistant Communications Convenor. Marilyn Leeks, Jill Parris, Shayne Davy, Will Mead and Margaret O’Donnell joined the National Committee as an “ordinary” members. Greg Clark did not stand for re-election this year.
The AGM moved a vote of thans to retiring members for their work in the past years.
Reports from the AGM are available below.
Our Team 2024-25…
RAR National Committee
Meet the Team
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Rev Paul Dalzell
National President
Alexandra RAR (Vic)
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Kathie Herbert
Vice-President
Blue Mountains Refugee Support Group (NSW)
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Bern Fraser
Secretary
Wangaratta RAR (Vic)
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Marian Shanahan
Treasurer
RAR Southern Highlands (NSW)
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Sandy Watson
Communications Convenor
Trentham RAR (Vic)
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Robert Kann
Assistant Communications Convenor
Welcome to Maleny (QLD)
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Suzie Don Leonard
Assistant Secretary
RAR Wangaratta (Vic)
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Margaret Manning
Committee member
Combined Refugee Action Group (Geelong, Vic)
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Marilyn Leeks
Committee member
Northern Rivers Region for Refugees (formerly Ballina R4R)
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Jill Parris
Committee Member
Aireys Inlet RAR (Vic)
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Shayne Davy
Committee Member
Hunter Asylum Seeker Advocacy (NSW)
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Will Mead
Committee Member
Griffith RAR (NSW)
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Margaret O'Donnell
Committee Member
Ballarat RAR (Vic)
2023 Annual General Meeting
The 2023 AGM was held on Zoom 16 September. The Annual Reports were presented and the National Committee for 2023 - 24 were elected. Jonathan Strauss stepped down as President and Rev Paul Dalzell accepted the role for the coming year. Jonathan Strauss is Vice- President, Louise Redmond is Secretary. Geoff Byrne continues as Treasurer and Sandy Watson as Communications Convenor. Rob Kann is an “ordinary” member and took on the role of Membership Liaison. There is room for more members.
All these documents are available below.
The 2024 Annual General Meeting will be held prior to the 2024 National Conference 11 October in Kyneton, and also on Zoom
The National Committee is elected at the Annual General Meeting each year. All member groups can nominate someone to stand for the National Committee.
Some key information for our groups is available here
RAR Patrons
Muzafar Ali
Muzafar Ali is a human rights activist, artist, and a former Hazara refugee from Afghanistan. He currently resides in Adelaide and is a student at the University of South Australia.
He worked for several United Nations organisations in Afghanistan. In 2014, he co-founded first refugee-led educational institution (Cisarua Refugee Learning Centre) in Indonesia and supported other refugees to start their own initiatives.
In Australia, Muzafar manages the program at Cisarua Learning to support refugee-led initiatives in Indonesia and Thailand.
He accepted RAR’s invitation to be Patron in September 2022.
Professor Gillian Triggs
Professor Gillian Triggs is an Australian academic specialising in public international law. In 2019, she was appointed by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres as Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations. Before that, she served as President of the Australian Human Rights Commission (2012 – 2017). She has been a Patron of RAR since 2017
Julian Burnside [AO QC]
Julian is a barrister, an “Australian National Living Treasure”, winner of the Sydney Peace Prize, and long-term advocate for human rights, asylum seekers and refugees. He has been a Patron of RAR since 2019
Emmanuel Musoni
Emmanuel Musoni; Chair of Great Lakes Agency for Peace and Development International (GLAPDI); has been engaged in community development for many years, in Australia and overseas. As a result of having more than 200 families expressing interest in moving to country towns, Emmanuel began a campaign of visiting rural communities to talk about the benefits of regional resettlement for communities and refugees.
Emmanuel has settled around 133 people in regional areas since mid-2016. Based on this experience, Emmanuel has developed a community-based national toolkit – STEPS TO SETTLEMENT SUCCESS: A toolkit for Rural and Regional communities.
He has been a Patron since 2019.