Labor Waste

Another cost to taxpayers from Labor’s  failed border protection policies:

BUYING cigarettes and tobacco for immigration detainees is costing taxpayers more than $1.4 million a year. While the federal government spends millions on anti-smoking campaigns, the cost of keeping up detainees’ habits costs about $4000 a day. The Opposition accused the government of providing its own “mini-stimulus” package for the tobacco industry.

Detainees earn points in the immigration detention system worth up to $50 a week by participating in education and activity programs. They then use points to purchase items, including cigarettes and tobacco products or phone cards.

The tobacco costs were released in an answer provided by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship to a question asked by Liberal senator Michaelia Cash in senate estimates hearings.

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said no one was to blame other than the government and the tobacco costs were just a symptom of the blowout of running detention centres and the number of people in them since Labor came to power.

“Labor’s four years of border protection failure has created their own mini-stimulus package for the tobacco industry,” Mr Morrison said.

“The chaos and cost blowouts in our detention network is a constant reminder of why Labor just can’t be trusted on border protection.

“Now Labor wants a blank cheque in the parliament for their already failed Malaysia agreement,” he said.

Read the rest here: Asylum seekers’ $4000 a day for smokes | thetelegraph.com.au.

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