Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can the minister explain why the government deliberately omitted the capital and operational costs of Nauru and Manus Island in MYEFO, estimated at approximately $2.9 billion, as well as the full cost of increasing the refugee intake to 20,000, at more than $50,000 per place? Given that Nauru has now demanded that Australia pay up to $90 million over five years as insurance against the cost of housing up to 1,500 asylum seekers, why does the government continued to shroud in secrecy the true costs of the budget blowouts in the immigration portfolio?