The islanders’ economic future has been put at risk by the government’s ‘political campaign’, shire president says

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The government’s decision to reopen and then close the Christmas Island detention centre has played havoc with the lives of the island’s residents, its shire president has said.

Gordon Thomson, who has been in the role from 2003 to 2011 and again from 2013, said the community was used to “boom and bust cycles” but it was outrageous the government had spent $185m on “a political campaign that backfired”.

“The very negative effects of the continuous politicisation of decisions on the economic existence of the islanders are wearing a bit thin,” he said.

“They’ve got no regard for the people on the island and it’s been going on since 2001.”

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Thomson said the island’s residents had never wanted a detention centre – and he remains morally opposed to it – but it had become an important contributor to the economy, particularly as its presence damaged the island’s ability to attract tourists.

“It looks like a high-security prison, and high-security prisons don’t really attract tourists,” Thomson said. “We’re in the news again for all the wrong reasons.”

The government reopened the centre less than two months ago in reaction to the parliament passing medical evacuation legislation, with Scott Morrison claiming it was needed to deal with refugees and asylum seekers from Manus Island and Nauru needing treatment.

On Tuesday the government used the federal budget to reveal it intended to close the detention centre by July if it wins the election – expected in May.

At the time he announced its reopening, Morrison said it would cost $1.4bn over four years.

However, the budget papers revealed the cost to be much less – $185m over 2018-19 and 2019-20 – before it would close. That included about $106m for garrison and welfare services – healthcare, security, food and facilities.

The finance minster, Mathias Cormann, told Radio National on Wednesday the $1.4bn figure was based on advice from national security officials. A home affairs official told Buzzfeed on Tuesday the figure did not come from them.

The health contractor IHMS had advertised for a number of jobs last month, including for a senior medical officer contracted until December 2019. The health services are not available to local residents, who for decades have had to travel to mainland Australia for many treatments.

Guardian Australia understands the security contractor Serco has been advertising internally for guards to take three-month secondments from mainland facilities, with free accommodation and around $100 extra per day.

The influx of employees had provided a short-term boost to local businesses, Thomson said, but that now looked likely to end.

“The government’s decision in February [to reopen the centre] did create a slight economic stimulus which was needed, but that whole process has held up other processes which were in train for our economy,” Thomson said.

Thomas cited a push to reopen a casino resort which had closed in 1998 before reopening to accommodate detention centre staff until it closed again in 2015.

“We said [to the government]: you’re closing the detention centre and this is what our economy needs,” said Thomson. “But every priority we had was put aside because the government had a political interest in reopening the immigration detention centre.”

It is understood no refugees or asylum seekers have been sent to the reopened facility since the law passed several weeks ago, but the government has refused to confirm that.

Cormann told Radio National the government reopened Christmas Island as a deterrent and the lack of transfers showed it appeared to have worked.

However, Guardian Australia has revealed at least one transfer is thought to have occurred to the mainland and about 25 other people have been brought to Australia for medical treatment under the previously established IHMS-led recommendation process.

The government has been criticised for ignoring those recommendations in dozens of cases – some for up to five years – and there is speculation it is now using it more readily instead of the medevac law.