It was a visit that needed to go well. Home Affairs inspectors had not been to Manus Island in 15 months due to “safety concerns”, but on a humid Wednesday morning in mid-March a delegation was on site inspecting how the department’s handpicked refugee service provider, Paladin, was performing.

This rare attention was all the more critical given just three weeks earlier Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo had assured Labor and cross-bench senators that despite the swirling controversy around Paladin, the company was subject to a strict “performance management regime” and his officials were “satisfied” with how the company was delivering services.