Mothballing Nauru’s detention centre could save $250 million in a year

Asked about the line item on 2GB, Albanese said the government had no plan to mothball Nauru, saying that while “things get line items because of budget reporting”, Operation Sovereign Borders was still in place, and people who arrive “in an unauthorised fashion” would be sent to Nauru.

“We now don’t send people to PNG because that facility is closed,” he said. “Nauru is open.”

The president of Nauru will meet with Albanese during a visit to Australia next week.

O’Neil and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles have faced sustained criticism from the opposition over their handling of border security and immigration detention.

The Nauru facility has operated for a decade under both Coalition and Labor governments, and was briefly empty mid-last year, before asylum seekers were discovered in Western Australia’s far north in November.

If the facility remains mothballed beyond the initial 12 months, the government anticipates banking $774 million in savings over four years.

Coalition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said the savings forecast was audacious given three boats had arrived in Australia in the past week and six boats in six months.

“It’s heroic, to say the least, to assume Nauru will be empty in just over 12 months, and that the government can bank $774 million in savings over the forward estimates in offshore processing,” he said.

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People smugglers have repeatedly tested the capabilities of Operation Sovereign Borders, which the Abbott government established in 2013 in response to thousands of asylum seekers coming to Australia under the Rudd-Gillard governments.

In the past six months, asylum seekers have been sent to Australia in fast, modern boats, dropped onshore and told to wait for a few days as the smugglers headed back to sea, rather than being shipped from Indonesia in large, leaky boats laden with dozens or even hundreds of people.

On Monday, this masthead revealed Australian Border Force officials were processing two boatloads of asylum seekers on the water, prompting speculation they would try to return them to where they came from instead of taking them directly to Nauru.

According to government sources, the people were still being processed aboard Border Force vessels on Wednesday, several days after they were detected.

O’Neil last week visited Indonesia, a key stepping off point for people smuggling operations, to speak to Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly, and Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Hadi Tjahjanto. She spoke with the ministers about combating people smugglers, illegal fishing and counter-terrorism.

The government is this week pushing the Senate to pass its bill which would allow it to jail people who resist their own deportation. The Greens, refugee advocates and bridging-visa holders potentially targeted by the measures have urged Labor to drop its plans.

The government allocated $37 million to asylum seeker support services – understood to be demand-based funding – for 2023-24 in last year’s budget, however expects $17 million will be spent in 2024-25.

Jana Favero from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said: “This budget sends a clear message to families seeking safety from danger that they’re not a priority. That they are being left behind simply because of how they fled to Australia and their immigration status.”