The federal government's predicted surplus will be blown by the cost of asylum seekers alone, the coalition says.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen introduced two bills to parliament on Tuesday requesting appropriation of the money needed to implement the recommendations of the Houston expert panel on asylum seekers.
It comes at a cost of $1.67 billion in 2012/13 and includes $267 million to build regional asylum seeker processing centres in Nauru and Manus Island. Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said before the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook the estimated cost of processing and accommodating asylum seekers was $4.97 billion.
"That figure today is up to $5.4 billion for this financial year and out over the forward estimates is $6.6 billion," Mr Morrison told parliament. In the May budget the government had estimated 450 people a month would arrive in 2012/13.
That figure had blown out to 2,000 each month, Mr Morrison said.
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The government has promised a $1.1 billion surplus next financial year but the opposition doesn't think it will achieve one. "If the government wants to know where their surplus has gone when their surplus disappears, it sailed away on a boat," he said.
"The surplus has been offshore processed." Based on the government's own policies, the 30-month average for boat arrivals was 713 people, Mr Morrison said.
"That's almost two thirds less than what we are seeing turn up every single month, this financial year." Mr Bowen had his hands so deep in the taxpayers' pockets he could almost tie their shoelaces through their pants, Mr Morrison said.
But the coalition would support the bills despite how it felt about the policy failures of the government, he said.
In summing up, Mr Bowen said $668 million was needed bring the Nauru and Manus Island facilities up to scratch. He said the government had always said this would be expensive and opposition claims about how simple it would be to reactivate Nauru were "patently false".
He also accused Liberal backbencher Luke Simpkins of peddling the falsehood that only Sri Lankans were being sent to Nauru.
Iraqis, Iranians Afghans and Pakistanis were also on the island, he said. The two appropriation bills were passed without dissent and now go to the Senate.
