So you think #MandatoryDetention and #TurningbacktheBoats is good policy? Then have a look at this...

 

If there is one good thing about the shake up of the print media in Oz, it is the arrival of an Australian version of the historic English newspaper, The Guardian. 

This piece on mandatory detention and the profits to major international corporations and the costs to homegrown Australian taxpayers is a fine example of what fine newspaper reporting can provide.  Below are just a few paragraphs to act as a teaser. Please go to the site for some startling information, graphs, pictograms etc.  One thing seems to be clear.  Some one - and perhaps more - will get PhDs and book contracts out of the "turn the boats back" and "regional assessments" policies of the Liberal/National Party Government of Australia and its enforcer, Scott Morrison.   

In these days of constantly unfolding political corruption, one question that needs to be raised  ... if international corporations are profiteering out of the mandatory detention contracts, are there benefits in cash or in kind - filtering back, one way or another, to political parties and/or politicians?  

The Australian government’s policy of mandatory detention for asylum seekers has benefited contractors by up to $10bn since mid-2007.

Guardian Australia has conducted an analysis of contracts in the AusTender database awarded by the Department of Immigration and containing keywords relating to the mandatory detention system. You can read more about the specific methods below.

The analysis reveals for the first time the scale of the privatised detention system, with 1,770 contracts awarded to 522 entities.

The bulk of the funds have gone to service providers including Serco Australia, Transfield Services, International Health and Medical Services, G4S Australia, construction companies such as Canstruct and John Holland, and charities such as the Salvation Army.

Links to the corporations in the extract above have been 

placed by the editor of this blog ... who suggests that,

in the light of the activities of these corporations, some

of the text incorporated in these sites has to be seen as irony.

For the history of Mandatory Detention in Australia, please go here.
For a list of current and former Australian detention centres, please go here.

Human Rights Commissioner Gillian Triggs
says Immigration Minister is using children as leverage
to win passage for his temporary protection visa legislation.

NATIONAL INQUIRY INTO CHILDREN
IN IMMIGRATION DETENTION