Dutton defends visa processing tender

The Home Affairs Minister says a new visa processing platform will enhance national security but will not cost 3000 jobs.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton. Picture: Getty Images

Home Affairs Minister Peter ­Dutton has moved to quash a Labor bid to open up a new front in the political skirmish over national security after the opposition warned that a proposal for a new visa processing platform would slash about 3000 public sector jobs and weaken borders.

The opposition’s immigration spokesman, Shayne Neumann, sounded the alarm yesterday on a request for tender by the Home Affairs Department on Friday in which two parties will compete for a lucrative contract to develop a digital platform to enhance Aust­ralia’s visa processing regime.

The government will also ­retain the option to “extend the scope of the platform for other long-term visas and ultimately citizenship in the future”. The ­winning party would enter into a public-private partnership with the commonwealth and be expected to invest $1 billion over a 10-year period. It would receive a return on investment over time, due to a “modest service fee”.

Community and Public Sector Union national secretary Nadine Flood said the request for tender confirmed the government’s “self-interested rush to proceed with a sell-off that will only benefit big business”.

“Such an incredibly important decision should not be rushed through in the shadows of an ­election,” Ms Flood said. “The government seems unmoved by the 3000 jobs that are at risk under its plan, and completely oblivious to the disastrous experience of other countries that have already gone down the visa privatisation path.”

Scott Morrison and Immig­ration Minister David Coleman have recused themselves from the process to avoid a conflict of ­interest, given their close personal ­relationship with Scott Briggs.

Mr Briggs is the chief executive of Pacific Blue Capital, which holds a 19 per cent stake in the Australian Visa Processing consortium, competing for the contract against a separate bid from Accenture and Australia Post.

Mr Briggs is a former NSW ­Liberal Party deputy director, is a board director of the Cronulla Sharks — the rugby league club where the Prime Minister is the No 1 ticketholder — and heads Mr Morrison’s federal electorate ­conference.

The new visa platform is aimed at ensuring Australia has “fully digital, largely automated, visa ­application processes that can be completed anywhere, on any devic­e, and in the native language of the applicant”, and which will “enhance Australia’s attractiveness to tourists, students and skilled ­migrants”.

In a letter to Mr Dutton last week, Mr Neumann said the governm­ent had been “unable to show why it would be in the nation­’s interest to transfer Aust­ralia’s sovereign visa processing system … to a private provider”.

He warned yesterday that the proposed shake-up would “put at risk Australia’s border security”.

But Mr Dutton rejected claims the system was being privatised and said the overhaul would enhanc­e national security.

“Visa decision-making, national security and intelligence gathering will always be retained by this government,’’ he told The Austral­ian. “Mr Shorten is also lying when he claims 3000 jobs are at risk.”