Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to take note of the answers given by Senator Watt in relation to Senator Shoebridge's good and important questions about this abhorrent deal that we now know about—a secret deal that the Australian government has not really been upfront about with the Australian people. We don't know the details of this arrangement between the Nauru government and Australia, but we do know that it is going to cost Australian taxpayers almost half a billion dollars for Australia to dump people that this government doesn't want on a new island prison. This is just abhorrent. When will we get some honesty from this government that all this deal is about is a political fix, with a half a billion dollar price tag, that treats people not just as political problems but as commodity. It is literally paying one of the poorest nations in the world to clean up problems that this government doesn't like.

I rarely agree with things that James Campbell, who writes for the Herald Sun, says, but he is right today. His column in the Herald Sun, which exposes this for the vain and abhorrent action that it is, is absolutely true. This government has no excuse for this. Dumping human beings on one of the poorest nations in the world and paying half a billion dollars to do it is a shame. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.