Follow the money
The reality is that Australia has entered into a binding, decades-long arrangement, and the $2.5 billion price tag is only the most visible cost. With interest, Nauru stands to make more than $7 billion from the arrangement.
Less visible, but more corrosive, is the damage done to our democracy when secrecy is used to avoid scrutiny. The public still doesn’t have access to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) underpinning this arrangement, despite it costing the Australian taxpayer billions. Both the Labor and Liberal parties supported the decision not to publicly release the MoU.
Pay to deport. Australia’s shameful return of penal colonies. By Alison Battisson & Janet Pelly, MWM