Fed: Immigration Dept budget blows out by at least $50m

AAP General News (Australia)
02-12-2007
Fed: Immigration Dept budget blows out by at least $50m

By David Crawshaw

CANBERRA, Feb 12 AAP - The newly renamed Department of Immigration and Citizenship
is set to overrun its budget by at least $50 million this year, a Senate committee has
heard.

Department secretary Andrew Metcalfe today told an estimates hearing that increased
activity in the wake of the Palmer report into immigration bungles had led to cost blowouts.

Increases were concentrated in computer systems and training, notably in NSW and Queensland,
and in units handling the controversial 457 visas for temporary migrant workers.

"We are having to work very hard to provide the sort of results that we would wish
to provide and live within our budget," Mr Metcalfe said.

"We are in what I would regard as a significant overspend situation."

He said the government had approved an "overspend" of about $14 million, but the final
figure for the year would be between $50 and $60 million, or three to four per cent of
the department's budget.

The cost overrun had not come out of the blue, as the department had been "ramping
up" activity to respond to issues identified in the Palmer report into immigration bungles,
he said.

Mr Metcalfe said the department hoped to save on stationery costs by producing more
reports on DVD - prompting Labor senators to joke about watching an exciting annual report
on the small screen.

"It's amazing what you can fit on a DVD," he said.

Meanwhile, the department's deputy secretary, Carmel McGregor, said it would cost about
$20,000 to change the branding from the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs
to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship.

The name change took place last month as part of Prime Minister John Howard's cabinet reshuffle.

The renaming would require changes to signage, stationery, corporate uniforms, business
cards, fact sheets, the website and department intranet, Ms McGregor said.

AAP dcr/sb/jlw/cdh

KEYWORD: IMMIGRATION

2007 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.