Media release – Australian Greens, 23 July 2023
Greens call for Royal Commission into Home Affairs scandal
Greens Acting Leader Senator Mehreen Faruqi and Home Affairs spokesperson Senator Nick McKim have reiterated calls for a Royal Commission following today’s revelations regarding Home Affairs, PNG and Nauru politicians and offshore processing companies.
Allegations of contractor payments finding their way to politicians in Nauru and PNG have been made in last night’s Sixty Minutes program and in Nine newspapers.
The reports have also examined Home Affairs failures on people trafficking and organised crime.
Quotes attributable to Greens Acting Leader Senator Mehreen Faruqi:
“Australia’s neo-colonial relationship with the Pacific produces this type of scandal.
“These allegations are serious and must be comprehensively investigated. Successive Labor and Liberal governments have outsourced Australia’s responsibilities to refugees to private companies and Pacific countries and this is the consequence.
“Australia’s regime of offshore detention was always cruel and inhumane, and this scandal is just more evidence of why a full blown royal commission is needed.”
Quotes attributable to Greens Home Affairs spokesperson, Nick McKim:
“This stinks to high heaven. There needs to be a full, comprehensive inquiry with appropriate powers into the whole immigration detention regime including this scandal.
“We have consistently called for a Royal Commission into immigration detention and the Prime Minister needs to put in place a Royal Commission into this scandal now.
“Even apart from deliberately harming refugees, Home Affairs has consistently failed to meet basic governance and oversight standards. This is the inevitable result.
“The human impact of Australia’s immigration detention regime alone warrants a Royal Commission but when these allegations are added the case becomes overwhelming.
“Labor put these offshore detention arrangements in place and Labor has an obligation to clean up the mess.”
