Australia announces plans to close five mainland refugee detention centres

A spokesperson for the Australian Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, Warren Truss, announced plans this week to close four mainland immigration detention facilities — Scherger, at RAAF Scherger, Queensland; Leonora, in Leonora, Western Australia; Port Augusta, in Port Augusta, South Australia; and Inverbrackie facilities in Woodside, the Adelaide Hills, South Australia — by the end of February. The detainees would be relocated to other detention centres. Pontville detention facility, in Pontville, Tasmania, was empty and would also be closed.

The detention centres staff learned about planned closure of their workplaces from the media rather than the employer directly, United Voice, an Australian trade union, commented. It estimated the number of affected people as 100 workers and “many more” casuals and contractors.

In a statement, Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison referred to recent border protection practices to justify the decision. On Tuesday, he told PM radio, “This Government is taking control of our borders, which enables us to shut mainland detention centres down in Australia. This will save taxpayers around $89 million a year and it’s the first down-payment on the dividend of stronger border protection. … These sites are remote, relatively small and expensive. The savings … amount to at least $7.4 million a month”. He also noted that the Pontville and Scherger detention facilities would be returned to the Defence Department.