$2.5b Nauru deal won’t be made public without court challenge or agreement, says Burke

3 months ago 4

The government will not release the details of a secretive $2.5 billion deal to deport foreign-born criminals to Nauru unless challenged in court or an agreement is signed between the two nations, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke says.

The comments on the deal came as Burke blamed the Liberal Party for stoking discord over immigration and signalled a tightening of federal laws to crack down on increasingly emboldened neo-Nazis.

“The normal barrier with anything involving another country is we, we wait. Ideally, we wait until there’s agreement from both countries for documents to be released, sometimes under the judicial system, of either Australia or Nauru,” Burke said of a hidden memorandum of understanding between the two nations.

“We don’t have an agreement between Australia and Nauru at this point in time about the release of the document,” he told ABC Radio National on Wednesday morning.

Details of the 30-year deal to deport foreign-born criminals captured under the NZYQ High Court ruling were revealed during a Senate inquiry in September. Under the deal, Australia will make annual $70 million payments to Nauru, after paying an upfront amount of more than $400 million.

The deal with Nauru only became known to the public after this masthead revealed Burke had quietly travelled to the island to finalise it in August. The first detainees arrived in late October.

A joint investigation by this masthead and 60 Minutes revealed members of the Finks bikie gang had won a taxpayer-funded contract to provide security on Nauru to the deported cohort. The allegations are set to be referred to the National Anti-Corruption Commission by Greens senator David Shoebridge.

Burke said Australia was “not party to the contracts in any way”, saying there was an air of secrecy around dealings in the Pacific to stop people smugglers from better understanding Australia’s immigration dealings.

“When that information is provided ... it’s taken very seriously by the government of Nauru ... I have no doubt that they’re taking those issues very seriously,” Burke said.

Both Burke and Foreign Minister Penny Wong met Nauruan President David Adeang in Canberra last week, in a meeting that was kept secret until after its conclusion. Wong had earlier raised reports about the Finks deal with Adeang on the sidelines of a Pacific Security College leadership program.

Burke also addressed the revocation of South African neo-Nazi Matthew Gruter’s visa, following his attendance at a rally of National Socialist Network members outside NSW parliament on November 8.

Matthew Gruter (third from left) with other members of the NSN outside NSW Parliament on November 8.

“This bloke, for whatever reason, has decided that he can arrive in Australia and then tell a whole lot of Australian citizens that they’re not welcome here. Well, the person who’s not welcome is him, and he can leave,” Burke said.

Burke said his department, intelligence agencies, and law enforcement were “pressure testing” Australia’s laws to ensure the legal settings are appropriate as the NSW government drafts stronger penalties for Nazi activity.

“There is significant powers we have under current law, but … there are conversations that I’m having with my department to make sure that all the laws that we have are fit for purpose,” Burke said.

Opposition home affairs spokesperson Jonno Duniam on Tuesday blamed Labor for rising tensions around immigration, saying the government’s policy failures were making immigrants “the scapegoat” for problems facing Australian citizens.

Burke rejected the argument, saying: “If they’ve been made a scapegoat, it’s largely been by the rhetoric of the Liberal Party … [that’s where] a whole lot of the anti-immigration rhetoric over the last 12 to 18 months has come from.”