Taxpayers to fund $350m empty Nauru refugee detention facility

Labor will spend up to $350m a year keeping the Nauru detention centre open even when it is empty so it can use Tony Abbott’s plan to deter people smugglers.

​Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Labor will spend up to $350m a year keeping the Nauru detention centre open even when it is empty so that it can use Tony Abbott’s Operation Sovereign Borders to deter people-smugglers from sending boats to Australia.

The last asylum-seeker at the offshore detention centre has left the facility, The Australian understands, after getting married and moving into the community.

But 15 years after the Rudd government scrapped offshore detention – leading to the arrival of 44,738 asylum-seekers and the deaths of an estimated 1111 people at sea – the federal government will maintain the Nauru facility to stop another rush of boats.

 

Nine boats have attempted to come to Australia since May last year, carrying 209 people. All have been returned to their home countries.

The only two people remaining in the Nauru facility can’t leave as they are facing serious criminal charges.

A Department of Home ­Affairs spokesman said the government remained “committed to an enduring regional processing capability in Nauru as a key pillar of Operation Sovereign Borders”.

“The enduring capability ­ensures regional-processing ­arrangements remain ready to ­receive and process any new ­unauthorised maritime arrivals, future-proofing Australia’s ­response to maritime people-smuggling,” the spokesman said.

In February, there were 65 people on Nauru awaiting ­resettlement in the US, Canada and New Zealand.

With Anthony Albanese likely to face pressure to weaken border policies at Labor’s national conference in August, the government is claiming the empty Nauru centre is a sign of more efficient management of asylum-seeker requests.

While the government is resisting replicating the Rudd government’s policy blunder, Labor sources said there was likely to be agitation for more compassionate border policies at the party’s ­national conference. The Left faction could have a majority of delegates at the national conference for the first time in 70 years.

Reconstruction of the processing centre in Nauru in 2013. Picture: Bradley Hunter

A newsletter distributed this month by Labor for Refugees showed the group was planning to move motions at national conference to change the party’s border policy. Labor for Refugees – made up of ALP members and unionists – supports ending offshore processing, the introduction of a 30-day processing rule and for the humanitarian intake to be progressively lifted to 50,000 a year.

“At our last L4R meeting, members endorsed the wording of a motion around which we will run a campaign in the lead-up to Labor’s national conference,” the newsletter says.

“The next step will be to promote this motion and encourage ALP members to submit it as a ­national conference agenda item when the ALP calls for submissions. Conference is our best chance of reforming Labor’s refugee policies.”

The group has written to ­Immigration Minister Andrew Giles – a Left faction heavyweight close to the Prime Minister – ­demanding answers for people on temporary visas and an easier pathway for family reunions.

Mr Giles and Mr Albanese voted with the Left faction against boat turnbacks at Labor’s 2016 ­national conference, a key element of Operational Sovereign Borders. Both Mr Albanese and Mr Giles have since declared their support for boat turnbacks.

The decision to improve efficiencies in the processing system and maintain the facility indefinitely comes after Labor fulfilled its election pledge to end the use of Temporary Protection Visas, paving the way for about 19,000 refugees who arrived by sea to stay permanently in Australia. The move has sparked criticism from the Coalition, which warns Australia could face a surge in ­asylum-seeker boats if people smugglers saw the move as an ­attempt to water down Operation Sovereign Borders.

The detention centre in 2014. Picture: Deidenang Clint

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said Australia could not afford to drop its guard at the border and offshore processing must remain a critical part of effective deterrence.

Offshore processing on Nauru was started by the Howard government in 2001 in response to the Tampa affair, during which John Howard denied entry to a cargo ship carrying 433 refugees into Australian waters.

The former Coalition government moved to establish offshore detention camps on Nauru and Papua New Guinea in a bid to act as a deterrent.

The move ignited two decades of political controversy over border protection, with the facility shut down in 2008 but restarted in 2011 under Labor.

Mr Abbott went further by establishing Operation Sovereign Borders in 2013.

Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay urged the federal government to be open and transparent about its plan for the ­immigration detention centre on Nauru after the body expressed concerns about the welfare of people detained.

“The commission has for many years expressed serious concerns that offshore processing arrangements could see Australia in breach of its human rights ­obligations, and welcomes news that the last remaining people being detained in Nauru will be brought to Australia,” Ms Finlay said.

Refugees at Nauru in 2018. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Operation Sovereign Borders commander Justin Jones told a Senate estimates hearing in February there had been a “sharp increase in operational tempo” since Labor was elected last May.

Between May last year and March, when the most recent Operation Sovereign Borders monthly report was published, Australian authorities intercepted eight maritime people-smuggling boats trying to reach Australia with 209 people on board.

Greens home affairs spokesman Nick McKim said the Albanese government’s plan to spend millions of dollars on an empty detention centre was an “appalling waste” during “a supposed budget emergency”.

Senator McKim called for ­offshore processing to be shut down entirely and for all asylum seekers to be given a permanent home.

“Apparently there’s no austerity when it comes to the big business of offshore detention,” Senator McKim said.

Independent MP Kylea Tink said offshore processing should be shut down entirely and argued boat turnbacks were a more effective policy to reduce the number of offshore arrivals.

“I … would agree with the ­refugee sector that offshore ­processing just isn’t needed,” Ms Tink said.