Australian government under pressure to explain US$300 million paid to Singaporean firm for security at refugee camps
- Questions have been raised about Paladin Holdings and its ties to a senior PNG politician
- Australian government last week announced it would reopen a detention centre on Christmas Island
The Australian government came under pressure on Monday to explain how an obscure firm with a beach shack as its registered office won contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to provide security at Pacific refugee camps.
The Singapore-registered Paladin Holdings was awarded more than A$420 million (US$300 million) – about A$17 million a month – in contracts to provide services at three transition centres for refugees on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island.
The operations are part of Canberra’s harsh policy of processing asylum seekers who try to reach Australia by boat at remote offshore Pacific camps, where hundreds of refugees have been stranded for five years.
But questions have been raised about why Paladin was given the contracts after local media reported the firm had little experience, was thinly capitalised and had ties to a senior PNG politician.
The Australian Financial Review said Paladin’s registered office in Australia was a beach shack on Kangaroo Island, a sanctuary for native wildlife off the coast of South Australia.
After the reports surfaced last week, Paladin changed its registered address to an office in the capital Canberra, the newspaper reported on Monday.
