In recent years, the Albanese government has awarded lucrative immigration detention contracts to the local subsidiary of Management and Training Corporation, a major US private prison company, to operate offshore processing facilities on Nauru and Australia’s onshore detention network.

The contracts were awarded despite serious concerns about MTC’s track record in the US, including allegations of “gross negligence” and “egregious” security failures, and allegations by the state of Mississippi that it had engaged in “a conspiracy scheme” of kickbacks, fraud and money laundering, paying bribes to state officials in exchange for contracts.