Fed: Pacific solution degenerating into bidding war: Rudd

AAP General News (Australia)
12-12-2001
Fed: Pacific solution degenerating into bidding war: Rudd

CANBERRA, Dec 12 AAP - The federal government's so-called Pacific solution to asylum
seekers appeared to be degenerating into a bidding war, Labor foreign affairs spokesman
Kevin Rudd said today.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer yesterday said the tiny Pacific nation of Nauru would
receive another $10 million to fund health, education and environment programs in return
for accepting another 400 boat people.

The deal takes the number of asylum seekers being housed on Nauru to about 1,200, with
Australian having already handed over $20 million for refugee processing.

The $30 million total does not include the actual cost of transporting, feeding and
housing the asylum seekers in both Nauru and Papua New Guinea, with reports today that
figure may be as high as $500 million.

Mr Rudd, who is in Pakistan to examine the people smuggling problem, said the government
should come clean about the cost of the Pacific Solution.

"What I'd say at this stage is that it seems as if the Pacific Solution seems to be
becoming something more like the Pacific auction," he said.

"This raises the question of what the bid price will be for the next boatload of people
and where all this will lead in terms of the overall cost effectiveness of this solution."

Labor is shortly to begin reviewing its policy towards asylum seekers following the
federal election.

Mr Rudd said he would use his three-day visit to discuss Pakistan's involvement in
a regional conference to be held in Indonesia in February.

He said he would also make an assessment of how large the refugee problem was likely
to be in the wake of the Afghan war.

Mr Downer said yesterday the extra $10 million for Nauru would be spent on health scholarships,
essential medical equipment, teacher training and mobile classrooms.

It would also assist with waste management, water tank repairs, police training and
technical assistance, he said.

AAP rft/daw/ph/br

KEYWORD: BOAT RUDD

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