The Morrison government has sent an additional 140 Serco staff to the reopened Christmas Island detention centre at taxpayers' expense despite no refugees being sent there under the controversial medical transfer regime.
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Just one person has been brought to Australia in the month since the new system has been law, in spite of the government's warnings that the changes would see hundreds of people evacuated from Papua New Guinea and Nauru.
Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo confirmed the person had been brought to the mainland for medical treatment, bypassing the remote Australian territory of Christmas Island, where the government is spending up to $185 million reopening the detention centre it closed last year.
Only three further transfer applications had been made, Mr Pezzullo said, of which one was "being actioned".
Refugee advocates and the primary architect of the law, independent MP Kerryn Phelps, had argued up to 70 people needed immediate medical attention that could not be adequately provided on Nauru or Manus and would benefit from the medical transfer legislation passed in February.
The government had also warned of disastrous consequences, and Mr Morrison travelled to Christmas Island last month to reopen the facility ahead of the predicted influx.
Tuesday's budget revealed the government has planned to spend $185 million reopening the facility. It aims to repeal the so-called medevac laws and close the detention centre by July 1 if it wins the election.
Home Affairs officials told a Senate estimates hearing on Thursday that an additional 140 Serco staff had been dispatched to the remote island as a result of the decision to reopen the facility. Some were based on the island while others were "coming and going".
Serco handles security and logistics at the facility on behalf of the government. There were also 14 medical staffers on the island and a small number of extra Border Force and Federal Police officials.
Home Affairs assistant secretary Stephanie Cargill said the $185 million cost was based on the assumption up to 250 people would be detained there. Currently the population is zero. But much of the expense involved fixed costs related to the reopening.
Mr Pezzullo confirmed: "There are no transferees on Christmas Island ... since the passage of the [medevac bill] no persons from regional processing countries have been transferred there."
Greens leader Richard Di Natale - who is also a doctor - suggested the shortage of transfer applications was due to the government placing a "giant roadblock" in the way by reopening Christmas Island.
"It would be a dereliction of my duty as a doctor to refer [people] to a facility where they will be away from their family and won't get access to the complex care that they need," Senator Di Natale said.
He said it was better for refugees and asylum seekers to stay in Nauru or Papua New Guinea than go to Christmas Island.
Senator Di Natale said the government's frenzied attempts to stop the medical transfer bill passing in February showed the laws were serious and could still have a significant effect.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann defended the government's expensive decision to reopen the remote Christmas Island facility, saying it was based on "clear and unambiguous advice" and that "for all intents and purposes [the decision] appears to have had the desired effect".
Senator Cormann said Mr Morrison's press conference on the island "helped to send a very strong message into the region, in particular to people smugglers who might have thought they had an opportunity here to start their vile trade again".
The Christmas Island facility was built by the Howard government and first utilised under Labor in 2008. Located 2000 kilometres north-west of Broome, it is far closer to the Indonesian island of Java than the Australian mainland.
The government mothballed the detention centre late last year, one of 20 such facilities it closed around the country.
Dr Phelps was contacted for comment.
