Boat arrivals a budget blowout threatPUBLISHED: 14 Aug 2012 08:52:00 | UPDATED: 15 Aug 2012 04:06:44PUBLISHED: 14 Aug 2012 PRINT EDITION: 15 Aug 2012
Tony Abbott in Parliament on Tuesday ... the Opposition Leader said Julia Gillard should accept some responsibility for boat arrivals and the deaths at sea. Photo: Andrew Meares
John Kerin, James Massola and Gemma Daley
Labor faces a multibillion-dollar blowout of the federal budget if its asylum seeker reform package fails to stem the flow of boats.
The budget allocated $1.1 billion to process claims for asylum in 2012-13 on the basis of 450 boat arrivals a month. More than 1800 asylum seekers arrived in July.
The government’s decision to renew processing on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island and the Pacific Island of Nauru triggered a lengthy debate in Parliament yesterday.
Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop called on Prime Minister Julia Gillard to resign over the dismantling of the Howard government’s Pacific Solution and a $4.7 billion blowout in asylum seeker costs since Labor was elected in 2007.
“Prime Minister Gillard has presided over the greatest policy failure of a generation and Immigration Minister Chris Bowen should also go,’’ Ms Bishop said last night.
Ms Gillard earlier urged an “end to politicking’’ over asylum seekers after calling the leaders of Nauru and Papua New Guinea to secure their backing.
Mr Bowen told ABC radio that rebuilding and operating a facility for 1500 people on Nauru would cost $2 billion over the four-year budget forecasts and $900 million for PNG.
The government hopes for cost savings through fewer asylum seekers arriving by boat.
Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill, said he would be prepared to allow an asylum seeker processing centre in his country.
However, in a blow to the Gillard government’s plans, another PNG politician and member of Mr O’Neill’s government, Powes Parkop, said he would mount a legal challenge to the plan.
The President of Nauru, Sprent Dabwido, also said Nauru was prepared to host a centre.
The government on Monday said it would adopt all 22 recommendations of an expert panel designed to break a parliamentary deadlock on asylum seekers since the High Court struck down the government’s controversial Malaysia people swap a year ago.
The panel recommended an immediate return to offshore processing in the Pacific centres, a boost to regional processing, to strip asylum seekers of the right to sponsor family members and measures to ensure those who risk their lives on boats get no quicker resettlement.
It urged the government to pursue its Malaysia people swap with extra safeguards and increase the humanitarian intake.
In a combative question time, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said Ms Gillard should accept some responsibility for boat arrivals and the deaths at sea that occurred during the political stalemate.
“I am prepared to do that every day that I am in this government. I accept responsibility for my actions,” Ms Gillard responded, but she rejected Mr Abbott’s call for a return to temporary protection visas and turning back boats.
Nauru’s Foreign Minister, Kieren Keke, told The Australian Financial Review that his government had concerns about how long asylum seekers would be kept in detention.
He said Nauru was willing to make an open-ended commitment to host 1500 asylum seekers and that Australia should pay.
Debate on the bill to restore offshore processing on Nauru and PNG in the Lower House ended at 9.30pm and will resume today.
The Opposition is proposing amendments to force the government to agree to temporary protection visas and boat tow-backs.
Another asylum seeker boat carrying 71 passengers was intercepted near the Ashmore Islands last night.
The Australian Financial Review