The Albanese Government has abandoned refugees with a budget that breaks their promise to increase Australia's humanitarian intake and adds hundreds of millions of dollars more to the cruel immigration detention system.
In a world that is facing increased conflict, this budget freezes Australia's humanitarian intake at 20,000 people despite Labor having adopted a national platform to raise it to 27,000.
Shockingly, the government is refusing to tell the public how much they plan to spend on deporting people to Nauru under their new Trump-like laws, but admitted they will only be "partially met from within the existing resourcing."
The budget did show Labor is spending more than half a billion dollars on trapping people in offshore detention in Nauru. The government is also budgeting to keep offshore detention open over the next four years, showing no intention of ending the cruelty.
Labor has budgeted a staggering $1.37 billion for onshore detention, an increase of $200 million from last year.
While there was a small pool of funding for community-sponsored refugee places, the Albanese Government's decision not to make these places in addition to the overall humanitarian intake is another breach of its national platform.
Senator David Shoebridge, Greens Spokesperson on Immigration, said: "This budget sees the Albanese Government spending billions being cruel to refugees in its race to the bottom on migration with Dutton.
"The $1.4 billion spent on privatised onshore detention and the hundreds of millions more given to bribe Nauru to be part of our cruel immigration system is not only wrong in principle, it is also money taken from Medicare, housing and climate action.
"Giving over a billion dollars this year to MTC, a global private prison corporation, to keep people in immigration detention because of visa issues, is a gross misuse of public resources.
"The Greens will not join Labor and the Coalition in their race to the bottom on immigration."
"We know that the structural problems in this country, like unaffordable housing and access to healthcare, are a result of decades of neglect and poor policy from Labor and the Coalition. This has not been caused by people coming here for a better life and contributing so strongly to our community and economy.
"Rather than billions spent on cruelty, the Greens are committed to a country where we're proud of multiculturalism and our response to refugees and immigration is fast, fair and compassionate."
