Refugee Advocacy Service of South Australia Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in 2003. Refugee Advocacy Service of South Australia Refugee Advocacy Service of South Australia Inc. (RASSA) is a non-profit Community Legal Centre in South Australia. It was set up in 2002 to represent asylum-seekers in the Federal Court of Australia. From about 2007, it was de-funded and ceased to exist. It has, however, now began functioning again in order to assist asylum-seekers in the community in South Australia whose applications are still being processed. In April 2002, a group of lawyers from the Woomera Lawyers' Group set up and established the Refugee Advocacy
Immigration detention in Australia and guaranteed that no asylum applications may be made by people on board the ship. The "Migration Amendment (Excision from Migration Zone) (Consequential Provisions) Act 2001" reinforced the practice of mandatory detention, providing for the indefinite detention of asylum seekers. Mandatory detention of asylum seekers was popular with sections of the Australian electorate. Some commentators argue that it helped Howard win the 2001 federal election. While the Australian Labor Party supported the policy as Opposition, in June 2005 a small backbench revolt in Howard's party led by Petro Georgiou and Judi Moylan resulted in some concessions to humanitarian concerns, including