Australians just paid up to $2000 a minute for a press conference on Christmas Island that told them nothing new.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his entourage spoke at the event for less than 30 minutes after landing on the island in a Royal Australian Air Force jet.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison tours North West Point Detention Centre on Christmas Island on Wednesday. Credit:AAP

This breezy outlay of taxpayer cash is cynical and wasteful just weeks before the government releases a federal budget that will confirm deficits of $360 billion over the past decade.

A government that once crusaded on a budget emergency is now soaking taxpayers to save itself at the May election.