Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Sport (Senator Lundy) to a question without notice asked by Senator Cash today relating to detention centres and asylum seekers.

I rise to take note of answers given by Senator Lundy to questions asked by me in question time today. A number of my colleagues noted the irony in the statement that I have just made to the Senate: 'I rise to take note of answers'—because what we have witnessed today is, quite frankly, one of the worst displays of a minister not answering questions in this Senate.

It is a very serious situation when the government makes an announcement, like the government did yesterday, that it is having to expand the detention facility because the detention network in Australia has officially broken under the Gillard Labor government; and, when asked very specific questions about just how much these additional onshore facilities are going to cost the Australian taxpayer, the minister was actually dumbfounded. Not only was she dumbfounded; she actually read from the wrong brief.

Australian taxpayers have a right to know just how much more of their money this government is going to rob them blind of to pay for what is now being heralded—even by the press, I have to say; and that is saying something—as possibly the greatest policy failure we have seen since Federation. Australians have witnessed over 30,000 people arriving in Australia in only a four-year period because of a gross dereliction of duty by this Labor government. We have now spent in excess of $6 billion of taxpayers' money because of the gross incompetence of those opposite.

Under the former Howard government, who stopped the boats—you cannot deny that; our policy stopped the boats and we reduced the number of people coming here to zero—Australians were paying $85 million a year for detention networks in Australia. The Australian taxpayer is now paying in excess of $6 billion. And only recently, on Monday, the Senate was asked to appropriate an additional $1.67 billion of taxpayers' money because this government just cannot get it right.

Today, after the government has made the announcement that it is again changing its policy in relation to detention, we ask what is it going to cost? You have made an announcement that you are going to open an additional 700 beds. You are going to reopen Pontville in Tasmania. You officially announced yesterday that you are now sending thousands of asylum seekers, not refugees, into the community. It needs to be very clear to Australians that refugees are not being sent into the community; asylum seekers are being sent into the community. There is a fundamental difference: these people have not had their claim actually verified. The government has admitted it will be sending thousands of asylum seekers into the Australian community and it cannot tell the Australian taxpayers how much it is going to cost them. It is $6 billion to date. Part of that is the additional $1.67 billion that this Senate appropriated on Monday. I can tell you, when we are back here in February, I do not know how much this government will be asking for anymore. We are already up to $6 billion, but I will put money on it that it will be at least another billion dollars of taxpayers' money.

Why do we say that? Because the minister was unable to tell the Senate whether or not the government had actually revised the number of estimated monthly arrivals. Currently, the government has budgeted for 450 arrivals per month. That is what the Australian government has said is its budget for this financial year. We are currently experiencing over 2,000 people arriving per month. That is the equivalent of the QE2 arriving at Christmas Island fully laden every single month. Two thousand people per month are arriving in Australia. Over 10,000 people have already arrived in this financial year alone. The government only budgeted for 5,400 people arriving. This is without a doubt the grossest dereliction of duty Australians have ever seen in relation to this portfolio area. (Time expired)