Cost of controversial medevac laws in the millions

Peter Dutton has called for the controversial medevac laws to be repealed saying they are costing “our country dearly”, as a report reveals the laws have cost taxpayers millions since being introduced in February.

Taxpayers are paying on average more than $150,000 for every asylum seeker on Manus Island and Nauru transferred to Australia under the new medevac laws.

The Herald Sun can reveal the cost of the administering the laws to speed up medical transfers totalled $4.6 million during February and June this year when 30 people were brought to Australia.

Since June, more than 70 additional transfers have taken place under the scheme, suggesting millions of more dollars would have been spent.

It comes as the Morrison Government will try to repeal the laws after a Senate inquiry hands down its report into the government’s repeal legislation, which is due on October 18.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton told the Herald Sun the cost of the medevac laws was “just another example of Labor ignoring expert advice”.

But Labor is laying the blame on the Morrison Government, saying it should have negotiated third country resettlement options for the refugees languishing on Manus Island and Nauru.

The medevac laws – which force the government to allow asylum seekers into Australia for treatment if a two-doctor panel declares that it is required – passed parliament earlier this year when the government suffered an historic defeat on the floor of the House of Representatives.

According to documents obtained under Freedom of Information, the Department of Home Affairs spent $2.2 million on flight costs, medical support and travel and other costs for family members during the first five months of the scheme.

It spent an extra $2.4 million in “fixed costs” to ensure transport options were available on an ongoing basis during the period.

The Morrison Government will try to reapeal the laws.

The government also reopened Christmas Island at a cost of $185.2 million, but no transferees have been sent there.

Mr Dutton said Labor should back the repeal of the medevac laws with the scheme continuing “to cost our country dearly”.

“Cleaning up Labor’s border mess that saw 50,000 illegal maritime arrivals has already cost the taxpayer at least $17 billion – that is money that could otherwise have been spent on Australians and other essential services,” he said.

Labor’s home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally said the hundreds of asylum seekers in offshore detention were a “problem of Peter Dutton’s own creation”.

“If Peter Dutton was capable of doing his job and negotiating other third country resettlement options, vulnerable people would not be languishing in indefinite detention and requiring medical transfers,” she said.

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“Labor has been calling on the Government to resettle eligible refugees in third countries as a matter of priority for close to six years and it’s time for Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Home Affairs Minister Dutton to take action.”

In a submission to the Senate inquiry into the repeal legislation, the Law Council of Australia said the medevac laws were saving a “significant amount of resources” expended on lawyers in dealing with claims for medical transfer in the Federal Court of Australia.

Key crossbench senator Jacqui Lambie declined to comment when contacted about whether she would support the repeal effort.

Originally published as Cost of controversial medevac laws in the millions