Australian campaign to stop illegal immigrants costs taxpayers $23m
An Australian campaign entitled ‘stop the boats’ which looked to stop people smuggling illegal immigrants into the country has cost the taxpayers almost $23m (£12.55m).
The amount of Australian dollars spend on the campaign was revealed by the Australian Audit Office in documentation produced for Senate Estimates.
The campaign, which focused on online and TV channels, featured in countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, with taglines such as 'By boat, no visa' and 'No way. You will not make Australia home'.
Prime minister Tony Abbott described the stop the boats policy as the 'most compassionate' thing his government could have done, adding that it saved money and lives.
However, Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said: “Spending taxpayer money on a self-promoting fear campaign like this is obscene.”
Illegal immigrants who arrive in Australia are processed in offshore detention centres in Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific island nation of Nauru.