3 months ago
22
Persistent allegations of corruption and the presence of bikies in the delivery of the federal government’s multibillion-dollar Nauru deportation scheme will face scrutiny in a Senate inquiry.
On Wednesday, this masthead revealed MA Services Group was at the centre of a secret offshore security deal funded by the Albanese government and involving the Finks bikie gang, the allegedly corrupt Nauruan President David Adeang and a controversial operation to guard the deportees – known as the NZYQ cohort – sent by Australia to the small Pacific island.
The detainee operation involves Australia paying Nauru up to $2.5 billion over 30 years, of which up to $40 million a year will pay for Australian private security contractors on Nauru.
MA Services has faced multiple claims of rorting and exploiting its migrant workforce and allegedly harassing female staff.
On Thursday, Greens senator David Shoebridge successfully proposed an inquiry by the legal and constitutional affairs references committee to examine offshore processing and resettlement arrangements with Nauru since 2022.
In particular, the committee was tasked with looking at payments to contractors, subcontractors and third parties, and integrity around the system. A report is due by June.
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Shoebridge also used question time to attack Labor in parliament for “indirectly funding the criminal bikie game, the Finks, through dodgy contractors like MA Services”.
Pointing to this masthead’s reporting, Shoebridge also quizzed Labor why MA Services had won multimillion-dollar security contracts to guard federal agencies and the nation’s anti-corruption watchdog.
“Why hasn’t your government, why haven’t you taken action to stop these contracts, or is giving Australian public money to bikie gangs now Labor policy?” he said.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong responded that the government had “zero tolerance” for corruption.
Independent MP Monique Ryan also pursued Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke in parliament about the government’s handling of the Nauru deportation deal.
Greens senator David Shoebridge.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“As a nation, it is right and proper that any country is able to have control of its visa system,” Burke said.
“I am grateful that the government of Nauru has given us a pathway for the third country resettlement arrangements which were put through this parliament.”
Ryan, also pointing to this masthead’s reporting on links to bikie gang involvement in Nauru security, asked if the “opacity, wastefulness and cruelty” reflected well on Australia.
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Shoebridge earlier this week read into Hansard a report from financial intelligence agency AUSTRAC, which identified that the Nauru president was suspected of money laundering and corruption in 2022.
“We have seen scandalous evidence of Labor’s rotten Nauru deal this week. From bikie gangs to crooked politicians and contractors, this whole project of disappearing people offshore is offensive to basic decency,” Shoebridge said.
“It is about time the Australian public knows what our tax dollars are buying and who is raking them in.”
A transcript of a suppressed interview also emerged this week showing Adeang hopes to send deportees back to their home country.
MA Services again declined to answer questions on Thursday.
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