Professor Triggs cited Australian law’s ‘failure to protect the interests of refugees’ as one of the key points in an address to be delivered at a sold-out event in Castlemaine tonight.

“We do need to think afresh about these issues,” she said ahead of the Refugee Week event.

Australia’s treatment of refugees didn’t just affect those seeking a life free from persecution.

“It’s a very serious matter for all of us,” Professor Triggs said.

She said a failure to hold governments accountable licensed them to breach other rights, beyond those of asylum seekers.

Related: Celebrating stories during Refugee Week

Professor Triggs, a Rural Australians for Refugees patron, believed Australia’s stance on refugees was not indicative of those held by a growing number of its people.

It had been her experience that rural communities had ‘wrapped around asylum seekers and managed a much more humane approach than other parts of Australia’.

“Rural communities are very conscious of the need for increased numbers in their communities to enliven their communities,” Professor Triggs said.

She said people’s exposure to refugees and asylum seekers was also likely to be greater if they lived in smaller communities.

“It’s harder to maintain ideological prejudices against people when you’re actually sitting next to them in church or buying your groceries in supermarkets,” Professor Triggs said.

“Rural communities not only see the economic and social benefits [of welcoming people who are refugees], they are also closer, so they can understand that they bring a different perspective… but that they are not to be feared, that they are to be embraced.”

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The professor considered the discrepancy between the views of a growing number of Australians, and the stance of some of their elected representatives in federal parliament, to be the nation’s ‘greatest disappointment and our greatest hurdle’.

“Our politicians are responding ideologically. They have lost contact with how a growing number – even majority – of Australians are feeling about the continued, indefinite detention of refugees,” she said.

“This is a really inhumane policy which needs to be separated from our quite proper right to protect our borders.”

She believed there were more humane responses to the challenges posed by people smugglers, and the risk of people losing their lives at sea, which needed to be explored.

But Professor Triggs was doubtful the looming federal election would be a forum for further debate, believing Australia’s major political parties would prefer to focus on domestic issues.

The professor was vocal in her criticism of the federal government’s treatment of refugees, particularly mandatory detention of asylum seeker children, while serving as Australian Human Rights Commission president from 2012-2017.

Related: Bendigo refugee services willing and able to extend help to Manus Island asylum seekers

Tonight’s visit to Castlemaine is understood to be a first for the professor, who was invited to speak at the Phee Broadway Theatre by the Castlemaine branch of the RAR.

The event forms part of the Mount Alexander Shire’s Refugee Week program.

“I really want to emphasise the capacity of regional communities to be compassionate and welcoming,” Professor Triggs said.

RAR Castlemaine chair Beverly Campbell was delighted Professor Triggs accepted the invitation.

“Following RAR Castlemaine’s shortlisting for a Human Rights Award in 2017, this appearance by Professor Triggs is further acknowledgement of the work undertaken by our dedicated community,” Ms Campbell said.

MEMBER for Bendigo Lisa Chesters has reiterated Labor’s stance on asylum seekers, following criticism of Australia’s treatment of refugees.

The opposition member said Labor would, ‘legislate to restore our international obligations into Australian domestic law’ if elected to form government.

“Like many in Central Victoria, we are opposed to indefinite detention and the cruel manner in which the current Liberal government is treating asylum seekers, particularly those being held in offshore detention,” Ms Chesters said.

“We need a federal government that will restore a compassionate approach to asylum seekers so that genuine refugees can progress their claims safely, securely, and in a timely way.”

Her comments come after former Australian Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs criticised government policies in relation to refugees, including immigration detention.

It was the professor’s understanding that the federal opposition’s platform in relation to refugees was more humane that that of the current government.

“Mr [Bill] Shorten has said he hopes the offshore detention of asylum seekers will be dealt with speedily… he wants a much more humane approach,” she said.

Professor Triggs is scheduled to speak at a Refugee Week event in Castlemaine tonight.

Ms Chesters expressed disappointment at missing the event, as Parliament was sitting in Canberra.

“When Professor Triggs was Australia’s Human Rights Commission President, she did a fantastic job despite being bullied and vilified by Liberal government ministers. Their behaviour towards her was just appalling,” she said.

“Refugee Week 2018 is a time to celebrate the diversity, contributions, and stories of those who have sought a safer place to live and now call Central Victorians home”.