Federal election 2019: Taxpayer bill for legal action on medevac of refugees quadruples
The taxpayer bill for legal action to force the medical transfer of boat people on Manus Island and Nauru more than quadrupled this financial year. Peter Dutton and Shayne Neumann write their pitch to Daily Telegraph readers on how they will fix this problem.
The taxpayer bill for legal action to force the medical transfer of boat people on Manus Island and Nauru more than quadrupled this financial year.
Case statistics show that of 152 legal approaches relating to 379 individuals since December 2017 there were only 34 cases where the courts made orders requiring transfer.
But the cost of legal fees related to requests has topped $1.4 million since July — far more than the total combined spend for the four previous years. The legal bill in 2017-18 was $275,668.
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Home Affairs has received 30 requests from legal representatives for transfers under the old policy in the three months since the passing of the Labor-backed medevac scheme allowing evacuations on the sign off of two doctors.
Officials have rejected activists’ claims the government was “fighting every case tooth and nail in the courts” to block medical transfers under the old scheme.
In most instances the government voluntarily agreed to the transfer which the Coalition has seized on as evidence that sick refugees were getting necessary care.
Home Affairs official Pip De Veau said: “Contrary to the public discourse suggesting we’re fighting every case tooth and nail in the courts, these statistics simply suggest that that’s not the case.”
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton (pictured) pledged a re-elected Coalition would repeal the medevac bill which was only about politics, not medical care.
“We now know only a few people have come to Australia from Manus and Nauru under the ‘medevac bill’, not a single one of them an emergency or someone who was ineligible to come under the existing transfer arrangements,” he said.
Opposition immigration spokesman Shayne Neumann blamed the Coalition for the costs. “If the Liberals were doing their job and negotiating other third country resettlement options, this wouldn’t be happening,” he said.
PETER DUTTON’S VIEW
We now know only a few people have come to Australia from Manus and Nauru under the ‘medevac bill’, not a single one of them an emergency or someone who was ineligible to come under the existing transfer arrangements.
It makes it very clear that for Labor this was only ever about politics, not medical evacuations.
Bill Shorten voted for the bill which weakens our borders not because he believed people who needed medical treatment on Manus and Nauru weren’t getting the treatment. He supported the bill because he had to manage the extreme left wing of his party, exactly the reason Kevin Rudd watered down their border policies which resulted in the arrival of 50,000 people on 800 boats.
Since Labor put people in to regional processing centres hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars were and are being spent providing facilities and hundreds of healthcare workers to cater to the medical needs of those in Nauru and Manus — a level of service better than that available to Australians in many regional and rural towns.
There were well founded processes for transfers to Port Moresby, Australia or a third country if treatment could not be provided in either Nauru or Manus and a doctor recommended the transfer — so those who genuinely required higher level hospital care were transferred for treatment.
Labor ignored all that and in so doing again endangers offshore processing and our border protection measures.
Labor will abolish Temporary Protection Visas and provide permanent residency to illegal arrivals. So two of the three pillars of Operation Sovereign Borders are gone, only turn-backs remain and the question is for how long under a Labor government.
If re-elected the Morrison Government will repeal the ‘medevac bill’, provide medical assistance according to advice of the doctors and keep the boats stopped.
Peter Dutton is the Minister for Home Affairs
SHAYNE NEUMANN’S VIEW
There is no difference between Labor and Liberal when it comes to Australia’s border protection regime.
Labor will never let the people smugglers back into business. The way to Australia by boat is closed, and it will remain sounder Labor.
We are committed to strong borders, turn backs when safe to do so, offshore processing and regional resettlement because we know it prevents deaths at sea.
We have seen that human tragedy unfold and we will never let it unfold again.
Every time Scott Morrison undermines Labor’s strong position on border protection, he is a walking, talking billboard for the people smugglers.
The real threat to Australia’s border security is the Liberals’ savage AFP and Border Force cuts.
Labor will triple the number of AFP officers overseas to disrupt people smugglers and prevent risky boat ventures before they start.
The Liberals’ cuts and chaos mean they have slashed the number of officers to just four dedicated officers covering the entire region — putting our border protection framework at risk.
Under Labor, Operation Sovereign Borders will be fully resourced. We will maintain Australia’s strong border protection measures and strengthen them even further to stop people smugglers in their tracks.
Shayne Neumann is Labor’s spokesman for Immigration and Border Protection
BARNABY JOYCE ON CLIMATE CHANGE: MOVE A MOTION TO ‘MAKE IT RAIN’
Barnaby Joyce says politicians who want to tackle climate change in parliament would have more luck moving a motion to “make it rain”.
Mr Joyce received a rock star welcome from voters during a Pub Test candidates forum hosted by Sky’s Paul Murray in his hometown of Tamworth.
He was joined by Labor candidate for New England Yvonne Langenberg, the Greens’ Tony Lonergan, United Australia Party’s Cindy Duncan and independent Adam Blakester.
About 100 voters quizzed the candidates about water management, regional infrastructure, jobs and live exports during the hour-long no holds barred forum.
Mr Joyce said he believed the climate was changing but thought politicians in Canberra had no chance of fixing the problem.
“There’s nothing going to happen in a room in Canberra … that is going to have any effect on the climate whatsoever, but it can send you broke,” he said.
Mr Joyce, who was repeatedly cheered by the friendly crowd, railed against vegetation management laws and other farm regulation likening government control to “communism”.
“I think the big thing that farmers worry about is this move, this socialist move, that private assets that they have paid for become owned by the government,” he said.
“If you take an asset off the individual … without payment that is socialism, socialism leads to communism, communism leads to complete anarchy and we’ve got to call it for what it is.”
Asked if farmers should have to pay to use water that falls on their land when it rains, Mr Joyce said it was a “balancing act”.
“You’ve got to be a little bit cautious because on all overland flow if you said all the water that falls on my land can be held by me then obviously that could completely destroy the water catchment area,” he said.
Labor’s Ms Langenberg said the management of the Murray Darling river system and the water issue in general was a “bit of a mess”.
She said the river’s management authority had been undermined, which was why Labor would hold a royal commission to investigate any potential wrongdoing.
Mr Joyce’s partner Vikki Campion, who is pregnant with the couple’s second child, did not attend the event held at the West Tamworth Leagues Club.
— Clare Armstrong
LABOR’S $250 MILLION HEALTH HELP
LABOR will spend $250 million on better medical services outside of hospitals and promise extra cash for follow-up care in a bid to reduce pressure on waiting lists.
Bill Shorten will continue his big health spend today by pledging to work with states to develop cash incentives for hospitals that provide “exceptional care”. If elected, Labor would also commit to also reduce waiting times for specialist visits to stop illness and injury become more serious.
It comes as the Coalition will today announce the first National Action Plan dedicated to the health of kids, with $4 million to roll out the strategy.
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