The Uniting Church has welcomed the compassion and decency being shown to TPV refugees who have established work and family connections in Australia, but said recent changes will leave many refugees no better off.

The High Court's decision to uphold the indefinite detention of stateless people is proof that a new system of complementary protection is urgently needed in Australia.

The Australian Government has finally demonstrated some compassion and common decency to the thousands of Temporary Protection Visa holders who having been living with uncertain futures.

The Uniting Church has again called for the immediate release of all children from Australia's detention centres, joining today's Sydney community protest.

The Uniting Church today welcomed new figures from the Federal Government that show only one asylum seeker child remains in detention, but warned the figures only paint a half truth when it comes to Australia's mandatory detention policy.

Leaders of the Uniting Church in Australia are calling on the Government to immediately release children and their families from detention and implement all the recommendations of the report from the Human Rights Commission Inquiry into Children in Detention.

On the eve of Good Friday - the day when we recall how those in authority put an innocent man to death on a cross - the Uniting Church has learnt that the Australian Government is about to use powers again to forcibly send asylum seekers back to Iran, where they face their own persecution and 'crucifixion'.

Leaders of the Uniting Church in Australia today said they are not surprised that the Australian Government ignored the pleas for asylum of the Turkish Kurds from the Minasa Bone.

The Four Corners report on the conditions at Woomera detention centre (19 May) has finally exposed the horrific consequences of the Federal Government's policy of mandatory detention.

"The books may be balanced, but many of those most in need have been left further behind by this budget," said Lin Hatfield Dodds, National Director of UnitingCare Australia.