DAVID MARK: The Immigration Minister Scott Morrison says the Government will close four detention centres in Australia, saving almost $90 million a year.
He says the detainees at the four centres at Scherger in Queensland, Leonora in Western Australia, and Port Augusta in South Australia will be moved to other centres, though it’s not clear where.
The other detention centre at Pontville in Tasmania is now empty, and PM has been told that a fifth centre, the Inverbrackie facility in the Adelaide Hills, will also be closed.
Scott Morrison says the centres were never designed to be permanent.
Sarah Dingle reports.
SARAH DINGLE: By the end of next month, four immigration detention centres will be shut down in an apparent attempt to save money.
Queensland’s Scherger centre, Western Australia’s Leonora facility, immigration housing at Port Augusta and Tasmania’s Pontville centre will close.
Detainees will be transferred to other facilities.
In April last year the Coalition also promised if it was elected it would shut the Inverbrackie centre in the Adelaide Hills “as soon as practicable”.
Today a spokesman for the Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development told PM this promise will be kept, and there will be more said on this soon.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison says the centres are no longer needed because the arrival of asylum seeker boats has slowed under the new Government’s policies.
Source: ABC News