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Mothballing Nauru’s detention centre could save $250 million in a year
By Olivia Ireland, James Massola and Angus Thompson
The federal government expects to mothball Australia’s refugee-processing centre on Nauru within a year, saving taxpayers more than $250 million in 12 months, according to a line item in the federal budget.
The projected cut in spending comes after the number of boats arriving in Australian waters has ramped up in recent months, including three boats in the past week, and after Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil met with counterparts in Indonesia last week about combatting people smuggling operations in the region.
The Nauru detention centre could be mothballed within a year.
Despite Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last Wednesday urging the Senate to pass Labor’s deportation bill this week, the government downgraded the priority of the controversial measures to be debated ahead of other legislation ahead of the June sitting period, as the opposition develops a list of proposed amendments to earn its support.
Amid ongoing scrutiny over immigration, the government announced a $570 million boost to border protection in the federal budget, while also adding $300 million to the management of immigration detention after the fallout from last year’s High Court ruling, and slashing the funding expected to be allocated to asylum seeker services by half.
In portfolio budget statements released on Tuesday, the Department of Home Affairs forecast the total cost of operating Australia’s centre on Nauru to fall from $604 million in 2024-25 to $339 million in 2025-26.
The processing centre on Nauru is expected to be cleared out, creating a saving of $264 million.
Government officials confirmed to this masthead that Home Affairs expected the centre would move from its current “active state” to “enduring capability”, which means a skeleton staff would run the empty facility that could be reactivated within two days to accept new asylum seekers.
O’Neil’s office said it was standard practice for federal budgets to anticipate that the centre would return to a standby state, despite 64 people being held in the centre after recent boat arrivals and interceptions.
Asked about the line item on 2GB, Albanese said the government had no plan to mothball Nauru, saying that while “things get line items because of budget reporting”, Operation Sovereign Borders was still in place, and people who arrive “in an unauthorised fashion” would be sent to Nauru.
“We now don’t send people to PNG because that facility is closed,” he said. “Nauru is open.”
The president of Nauru will meet with Albanese during a visit to Australia next week.
O’Neil and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles have faced sustained criticism from the opposition over their handling of border security and immigration detention.
The Nauru facility has operated for a decade under both Coalition and Labor governments, and was briefly empty mid-last year, before asylum seekers were discovered in Western Australia’s far north in November.
If the facility remains mothballed beyond the initial 12 months, the government anticipates banking $774 million in savings over four years.
Coalition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said the savings forecast was audacious given three boats had arrived in Australia in the past week and six boats in six months.
“It’s heroic, to say the least, to assume Nauru will be empty in just over 12 months, and that the government can bank $774 million in savings over the forward estimates in offshore processing,” he said.
People smugglers have repeatedly tested the capabilities of Operation Sovereign Borders, which the Abbott government established in 2013 in response to thousands of asylum seekers coming to Australia under the Rudd-Gillard governments.
In the past six months, asylum seekers have been sent to Australia in fast, modern boats, dropped onshore and told to wait for a few days as the smugglers headed back to sea, rather than being shipped from Indonesia in large, leaky boats laden with dozens or even hundreds of people.
On Monday, this masthead revealed Australian Border Force officials were processing two boatloads of asylum seekers on the water, prompting speculation they would try to return them to where they came from instead of taking them directly to Nauru.
According to government sources, the people were still being processed aboard Border Force vessels on Wednesday, several days after they were detected.
O’Neil last week visited Indonesia, a key stepping off point for people smuggling operations, to speak to Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly, and Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Hadi Tjahjanto. She spoke with the ministers about combating people smugglers, illegal fishing and counter-terrorism.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The government is this week pushing the Senate to pass its bill which would allow it to jail people who resist their own deportation. The Greens, refugee advocates and bridging-visa holders potentially targeted by the measures have urged Labor to drop its plans.
The government allocated $37 million to asylum seeker support services – understood to be demand-based funding – for 2023-24 in last year’s budget, however expects $17 million will be spent in 2024-25.
Jana Favero from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said: “This budget sends a clear message to families seeking safety from danger that they’re not a priority. That they are being left behind simply because of how they fled to Australia and their immigration status.”
What does the Migration Amendment (Removal and Other Measures) Bill do?
- Labor says its bill is designed to close a loophole preventing the deportation of people who are not refugees and who have exhausted all legal avenues to stay in Australia but refuse to leave.
- The bill empowers the immigration minister to direct a person the government is trying to deport to co-operate with all efforts to remove them, threatening up to five years in jail if they don’t comply.
- Holding a genuine fear of harm or persecution if you are returned to your country of origin is not a reasonable excuse for refusing to co-operate.
- The government can also ban people from applying for a visa to Australia if they are a citizen of a country that does not accept the voluntary return of its citizens. This includes countries such as Iran, Iraq and South Sudan.
- The legislation also allows the government to reconsider whether Australia owes protection to somebody who has fled a perilous country if the government is trying to deport them.
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