By Edmund Tadros and Markus Mannheim Get the data The federal government has spent half a billion dollars a year on consultants since Labor won office 4½ years ago, an analysis of its contracts shows. Yet while Finance Minister Penny Wong has warned agencies to slash this spending, few public…
Defence losing out in asylum camp fight
By Bianca Hall and Edmund Tadros Senior Defence brass opposed the Department of Immigration and Citizenship’s bid to use the remote Scherger RAAF base as a detention centre, documents released under freedom of information show. Defence refused to release more than half the pages in the heavily redacted package of…
ADF refugee role attacked
By Bianca Hall and Edmund Tadros The Federal Government is improperly using the Defence Department to support its refugee policies, the Australian Defence Association says. The Department of Immigration and Citizenship has entered into contracts worth at least $176million since 2010 – including $35million with Defence – to prepare and operate the…
Border security’s real cost
By Edmund Tadros and Bianca Hall Detention centre operators, an international training company, a NSW Government department and a multinational IT firm are the big winners from the Federal Government’s immigration policies. An analysis of tender data by The Canberra Times has identified, for the first time, the companies that…
ADFA’s decade of sex claims
By Edmund Tadros and Markus Mannheim Australia’s military university has filed at least 29 formal reports of alleged sexual offences over the past decade, including claims a female cadet was king-hit and raped while unconscious. But the records, obtained under freedom of information law, may represent a mere fraction of…