There is the little problem about multinational corporations arranging their affairs so as to minimise tax. (What great citizens modern corporations are!). Effectively, wage and salary earners are subsidizing international corporations because someone has to pay for government.
It's a problem of international concern, so much so that's its on the G20 agenda and will remain so until it's solved.
Incarcerating people, whether asylum seekers, or anyone else, costs taxpayers huge amounts of money.
Even Clive Palmer understands the absurd economics involved.
