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, with a report 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.
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