Offshore detention cost up fivefold in a decade

At a time when the public service has been slashed, Home Affairs has avoided proper scrutiny around the costs of offshore processing, but that's about to change.

Angus Grigg, Lisa Murray and Edmund Tadros

Jun 21, 2019 – 4.14pm

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At a late night Senate Estimates hearing in 2008 an immigration department official provided a rare figure on the cost of housing asylum seekers offshore.

The number was $289 million over six years, an amount considered outrageously high.

Angus Grigg is an investigative reporter based in Sydney. He has worked as a foreign correpondent in China and Indonesia, and has won two Walkley Awards.

Lisa Murray is Enterprise Journalism Editor and host of The Fin podcast.

Edmund Tadros leads our coverage of the professional services sector. He is based in our Sydney newsroom.