This is what smart a--- Rudd has done to this country, while our sick and old are treated on gurnies and chairs in hospital corridors. And our homeless are sleeping in containers!
Read and see how much just THIS year's"asylum seekers"will cost us. And seeking asylum from what? Look where some of them come from!
THE cost of supporting more than 40,000 asylum seekers expected to be in Australia next financial year is set to average more than $70,000 each person. And new break-down of costs this year show taxpayers have spent $1.5 billion maintaining the detention network amid record arrivals which are approaching 22,500 this financial year. Supporting almost 13,000 asylum seekers in the community whose asylum claims haven't been processed has cost $265 million for just 10 months. The cost includes $131 million to support asylum seekers on Bridging Visas who are prevented from working and who are paid equivalent welfare payments each fortnight. Renting homes and furnishing them has cost $18 million this financial year. Cost breakdowns given to a parliamentary budget Estimates committee this week also show charities are accepting hundreds of millions of dollars to care for asylum seekers. The Red Cross has been paid $603 million for 26 months' work helping asylum seekers in the Australian community. Almost $75 million has been given to the Salvation Army for welfare and support services in Nauru and Manus Island and $8 million has gone to Save the Children. By July there is expected to be almost 27,000 asylum seekers in the system with 13,200 expected to arrive in the 2013-14 financial year. The asylum budget of almost $2.9 billion next financial year works out an average of just over $71,000 per person for a year based on just over 40,000 expected to be at various stages of having their claims processed. It comes as new figures show people from 33 countries have come to Australia by boat this year, including an unprecedented flow from Africa. Almost 270 Sudanese and Somali have arrived along with people from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Gambia, Congo, Mali and Algeria. Eastern European nationals, including from Moldovia and Slovakia have also arrived on vessels. Four years ago only people from nine countries arrived, with none from Africa. Despite staggering arrivals this financial year, Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison claimed a Coalition government would still stop boats. He could not promise the Coalition would have an immediate impact on the asylum budget. "The cost of working through tens of thousands of cases will take time and ensure that costs remain high in the short term, even though the boats will stop," he said. A spokesman for Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor called the calculated average spend "crass" and claimed it "entirely misrepresents the complexities of managing our borders." News Ltd asked Mr O'Connor's spokesman how much the average spending on each of the more than 40,000 asylum seekers expected to be in the immigration system next financial year would be. He did not respond by deadline. ###
