Scott Morrison ally Scott Briggs leads bid for $1bn visa contract

Liberal heavyweight Scott Briggs is driving a bid to win a visa-­processing contract understood to be valued at up to $1bn.

Scott Briggs leads the Australian Visa Processing consortium. Picture: Kym Smith

Liberal Party heavyweight Scott Briggs — a close friend and ­political ally of Scott Morrison and a former professional colleague of new Immigration Minister David Coleman — is driving a bid to win a visa-­processing contract understood to be valued at up to $1 billion.

The Prime Minister could be involved in the process to sign off on the contract through cabinet or the expenditure review committee following an independent tender process being run by the Department of Home Affairs.

The department was understood to be close to finalising the expressions of interest phase of the bid process last month, but a decision to move to the next stage has been delayed, amid the political crisis that led to Malcolm Turnbull’s political demise.

With only two active bids — Mr Briggs’ Australian Visa Processing consortium and a proposal from Accenture and Australia Post — internal concerns have been raised over Mr Morrison’s links to Mr Briggs. The former NSW Liberal Party deputy director is a board director of the Cronulla Sharks — the rugby league club where Mr Morrison is the No 1 ticket holder — and heads the Prime Minister’s federal electorate conference.

When asked if he would recuse or excuse himself from the ­decision-making process and whether cabinet would sign off on the winning bid, Mr Morrison, who took advice from Mr Briggs before claiming the prime ministership, declined to answer.

“The request for tender process for the global digital platform will be conducted by the Department of Home Affairs and in accordance with strict probity requirements,” Mr Morrison’s spokeswoman said.

 

According to their respective CVs, Mr Briggs — the chief executive of Pacific Blue Capital, which holds a 19 per cent stake in the Australian Visa Processing consortium — worked with Mr Coleman at PBL Media and Nine Entertainment Co across a six-year period. A spokesman for Mr Coleman, who received the immigration portfolio in the Morrison ministry, attempted to deflect his involvement in the process, saying it was not “within his area of ­responsibility”.

The Australian is not suggesting any political interference in the matter of the Australian Visa ­Processing consortium’s bid.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton — the senior minister in the portfolio — would be responsible for taking the winning bid to ERC or cabinet if government sign-off were required. The Home Affairs Department has previously projected the ­processing of visa applications would reach 13 million by 2027 — up from about nine million now.

Labor had run a political campaign targeting the Australian Visa Processing consortium bid earlier this year, calling out Mr Briggs’ relationship with Mr Turnbull, for whom he worked after joining his private investment firm Turnbull Pillemer in 2003.

Mr Briggs also ran Mr Turnbull’s election campaign in 2004 — which saw Peter King ousted from the seat of Wentworth. Mr Turnbull launched Pacific Blue Capital in 2016.

The Labor attacks — led by legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus — stopped in late February, coinciding with the appointment of former Labor senator Stephen Conroy to the Australian Visa Processing consortium board on February 28.

The Australian understands that, due to probity measures surrounding the contract, Mr Conroy has had no direct contact with Labor about the bid and Mr Briggs has not spoken with government MPs or ministers about it.

“The opposition expects any tender to be conducted with the highest standards of probity, and any conflicts of interest by the Prime Minister or his ministers to be identified as part of the due diligence process,” Mr Dreyfus said. “That’s exactly why we raised these issues in question time and Senate estimates. We will continue to hold the government to account.”

Labor pursued the prospect of a conflict of interest in relation to the contract in a Senate estimates hearing on February 26 — when Mr Turnbull was prime minister. Senator Kimberley Kitching grilled Finance Minister Mathias Cormann about the issue. “Has the prime minister ­declared this conflict of interest when the matter was discussed in cabinet?” she asked.

The Australian Visa Processing consortium brings together a range of groups including Ashok Jacob’s Ellerston Capital, PwC, Qantas Ventures and Pacific Blue Capital. Former Foxtel chief executive Peter Tonagh heads the consortium, with Mr Jacob serving as chair.

The contract is aimed at developing a new visa business for the department that can process applications more efficiently using a digital platform. It has been touted as the “most significant reform to the Australian immigration system in more than 30 years”.

About 25 per cent of applications are lodged on paper, and most decisions are made manually. All visa applications would be lodged and processed under the new “global digital platform”.

The Australian understands the bids for the contract are being overseen by Boston Consulting Group which is acting as an ­adviser to the Home Affairs Department. KPMG is acting as commercial adviser.

Ernst & Young is serving as auditor to ensure due diligence is upheld while McGrathNicol is ­engaged to uphold probity arrangements.

The process has been run at arm’s length from government by the Home Affairs Department, which told The Australian that a “co-design stage” was due to conclude last June. “Once the co-design stage is concluded, advice will be prepared for the government on next steps,” a departmental spokesman said.

The Australian understands that Australia Visa Processing worked with a range of departmental officials from Home ­Affairs in Canberra over 16 weeks during the “co-design” phase. Weekly presentations were ­delivered on the proposed digital solution.

Accenture and Australia Post went through a separate co-design phase during the same period.

The request for expression of interest was released in September 2017, with 28 parties registering and 23 responding.

Early this year, the shortlist was narrowed to the Accenture and Australia Post bid and the Australia Visa Processing consortium bid.