Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I am happy to answer those aspects of the question which relate to the Finance portfolio. I suspect some of the aspects of the question relate to the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship. It is the case that in the midyear review there is an upward estimates variation of in excess of $1 million, $1.1 billion in 2012-13. The estimates variation includes the increase in actual arrivals to date, transitioning down to a lower level by the end of 2012-13 and staying there over the forwards. I should indicate, because I think Senator Cash referred to this, that this figure does not include all of the costs for managing the response to the Houston report. Some of those are measures which are reported elsewhere. There is also in the midyear review an indication of the increased direct costs to DIAC of the increases to the humanitarian program of an additional 6,250 places per annum and increases to the family reunion stream of the permanent migration program.

In terms of the expenses by function table, there is an increase of half a billion dollars in 2012-13. The $1.1 billion includes increases to functions other than DIAC—for example, healthcare provided to asylum seekers gets picked up under health spending and the table also does not include as yet—