Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration) Share this | Hansard source

In response, while I can understand that projections will change—and the outcome of legislation currently before the parliament could well have a bearing on what the realistic projections are for people if they do find themselves sent to Nauru—I find it extraordinary that, as I understand what has just been put to the House, the government framed a budget without any such projections. While it might not yet have been the law of Australia, it was already the policy of the government. The policy was announced in April and we are talking about the May budget. The policy of the government was in place. It had been through the National Security Committee of cabinet. The policy was clearly defined, and that policy would be what I presume the budget was based on.

I appreciate that until the end of next week it will be very difficult to determine if those figures have changed, and I respect that. But the question is: were projections done as to the length of stay at the time of the budget? If not, how could it be that, for something that is costing millions of dollars a month, a formal government policy was announced to the Australian people yet the government then framed and announced its May budget without reference to the policy? Surely some projections have to exist about the number of people who are sent to Nauru and the length of time they are expected to be there. If legislation subsequently alters that, that is beyond what you could have predicted at a May budget. But it seems unthinkable that in May a budget would be framed and put forward as the projections for the next 12 months without reference to what government policy was at the time.

I do not want to misrepresent the parliamentary secretary, but my understanding of what was just put forward here is that there is a chance that no projections were done. I do not argue for a minute that those projections might no longer be accurate and might change at the end of next week. But the question—and it goes to not only the prudence of the budget process itself but also the confidence that the government had in its own policy within a month of it having been announced—does remain: at the time of the budget, were there any projections made as to how many people would be on Nauru and how long they would be staying there?

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