Media Release: Sham hearing on secret $400m Nauru deal and deportation bill despite community alarm and risk of corruption

In another staggering blow to transparency and fairness, tonight’s hearing on the Government’s Anti-Fairness and Deportation Bill has been rigged to silence critical voices. Only Home Affairs officials will be allowed to give evidence, while human rights organisations, legal experts, and frontline community groups – those working directly with people whose lives are on the line under Labor’s secret $400 million Nauru deal – have been shut out.

The hearing, established by the Senate yesterday, will go for only two hours, even though it is considering legislation that strips away fundamental legal protections and opens the door to mass deportations.

Given the risk of corruption and cruelty, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre is calling for more transparency and a proper inquiry process. Past agreements with Nauru have been fraught with corruption, and in just August it was revealed that the leader of the notorious Finks bikie gang was promised $40 million in Australian taxpayers’ money for security and policing.

The Bill in question explicitly removes the right to fairness in deportation decisions and is linked to a secret deal the government has made with Nauru to pay them $400 million dollars and $70 million per year ongoing to take people Australia deports. The Bill legislates away appeals currently before the courts, validates flawed decisions made in the past, and paves the way for mass, without-notice deportations with no access to fairness. The Department of Home Affairs has already admitted these laws could be applied to more than 80,000 people – a fact the Government continues to downplay.

“This is nothing short of an insult to democratic process,” said Jana Favero, Deputy CEO of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. “We were calling for an inquiry and proper hearings to ensure the wide ranging implications and dangerous precedent of the bill were brought to light. Open debate and passing of legislation should be fully considered, including public and expert participation. Instead the Government is deliberately shutting out legal and human rights experts and rushing through dangerous laws that have the potential to devastate lives and tear families apart.”

“Australians should be outraged. This Government is planning to pour hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into a secretive Nauru deal with no transparency or accountability. This is the second time the Albanese Government has rushed migration legislation through Parliament with no warning and a rushed, sham hearing with the Department of Home Affairs as the only witness.  Let’s not forget, it is Home Affairs that has managed these Nauru contracts in the past – contracts already exposed for corruption and money flowing to criminals and shady operators. This is secrecy at its worst, a recipe for corruption and a disgraceful waste of public funds. We are literally paying for cruelty.”

ENDS 

For further information or to request an interview contact Natasha Blucher (ASRC) on +61 412 034 821 or media@asrc.org.au