Refugees as Business: The Paladin Group Contract
Despair breeds profits; disturbances supply opportunity. The genius and venal nature of human nature will always see a possible buck from an impossibly cruel situation. Globally, a study should be done about how many billions goes into the supply of contracts, tenders and sweetheart deals to companies with a hand in the business of stopping and keeping refugees. They are the modern pimps of a distinctly modern market, and it pays to have a series of companies doing the work for governments.
All too often, the traffickers are saddled with the lion’s share of the blame. Ignored are the equally vicious exploiters who find form in privately contracted companies. In some ways, they have even less of a case to make: the right to seek asylum is recognised by the UN Convention on Refugees; the means to facilitate how that is done is a matter that has been seized upon by practitioners in the market.
In Europe, companies such as European Homecare and ORS Service have shown themselves indifferent and, in some cases, openly hostile, to the welfare of inmates and guards. The words of Marie Sallnäs of Stockholm University remain relevant in describing the entire basis of private sector providers when it comes to dealing with refugee arrivals: “cowboys who are only there because they want to make heaps of money.”
Australia storms ahead in these stakes. Its officials pay the very people smugglers they condemn to take their trafficked goods elsewhere; it has fed a security complex that would make its Anglo forefathers proud (think the reaction of the British Empire to the Boers in South Africa at the end of the nineteenth century; think, dare it be said, concentration and concentrated camps).
The “can-do” country of innovative cruelty has been adding a host of ideas to the mix on how best to tackle those incorrigibles arriving by sea. To that end, contracts have been awarded to various outfits with a good patina of near as to be criminality. The contractor Paladin is the most recent upstart in this venture, having received, through a closed-tender process, a range of contracts worth $A423 million for 22 months of work. It had been receiving $A17 million a month to provide security at three refugee centres located on Manus Island.
The company itself has a curious Australian address: 134 Nepean Esplanade, an inconspicuous beach shack on Kangaroo Island, South Australia. It had only registered in Australia a month before winning a $A89 million contract to provide security services. Importantly, Paladin is interested in the grand squeeze, ensuring that the cost for each detainee, minus the actual comfort they receive, exceeds a daily rate twice that for a five-star hotel suite with Sydney Harbour views. In that sense, the Australian tax payer and detainee are given a right royal rogering.
The company itself has done its best to step into the shade. Founder Craig Thrupp has had a good time of it failing in delivering his contracts, accumulating a set of bad debts in Asia. (Paladin had been previously known as High Risk Security Asia Pacific, a name oddly appropriate for anybody wishing to do deals with it.) It has been reported to be running an office out of a beach shack on Kangaroo Island, a classic imposture demonstrating that illegitimate asylum seekers are less relevant than legitimate crooks who know how to cook the books for ruthlessly indifferent governments.
It is an appropriate reminder of another fiasco that took place in the United Kingdom at the end of last year: a ferry contract awarded to a company with no boats. More digging suggested favours and turning, rather conspicuously, a blind eye. Paladin’s questionable competence in providing security services does not match the guile evident in moving assets offshore: some 12,000 shares in Paladin Aus finding their way from the Hong Kong holding to its Singapore registered Paladin Holdings Pte Ltd. The security side of the venture is evidently less relevant than the inventive tinkering of its accountants.
The Minister for Home Affairs, Peter Dutton, has retreated. “I’ve seen this criticism before in relation to closed contracts,” he feebly explained to Sky News. “There are very few people who can deliver services in the middle of nowhere on an island that is so remote.” Stunning revelation. But it was one designed to avoid cabinet responsibility, a concept long lost in Australia’s variant of the Westminster system. According to Dutton, the ones to be taken to task here were the “secretary of the department ultimately” or some delegated figure “within the department.” Smell the confession.
Money is to be made, but Dutton is not claiming to be part of the scheme. His department, however, was not taking any chances. Anyone curious enough to investigate the issue using Australia’s stunted Freedom of Information laws will find it interesting that the initial response from the Department of Home Affairs precluded FOI. That decision was reversed, but Paladin did not need to comply with standard procurement rule set out by Commonwealth guidelines. Backdoor easing comes to mind.
The Minister for Home Affairs begs to differ. Nothing to see here, Dutton suggests; move on. As Bernard Keane, writing for Crikey, explains, there is much to see and more besides, so much so that a Royal Commission into the affairs of the Home Department might be necessary. And that would just be the start.
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Return to home pageCan see non stop Royal commissions and Enquirys if Labor get into power.
about time these power crazy turds were put under the blow torch.
The stench of corruption from this could raise our greenhouse gas emissions by a magnitude or two and you can bet that someone whose name rhymes with mutton is up its eyeballs in it.
Gads, vodka and tonic with a splash of homemade kumquat cordial is surprisingly pleasant. Well, that’s about my alcohol intake done for the year.
we live in interesting times…
will herr dutton face his accusers?
or ship them off to an offshore island?
her linked in profile has gone now
Oh my, this is interesting
Karen Dutton. With thanks to the member who posted the pic from Linked In.
Karen Dutton
Curriculum Officer at Paladin Solutions PNG
Brisbane, AustraliaSecurity and Investigations
Current
Queensland Department of Education
Previous
Broadspectrum, Careers Australia, Brisbane Catholic Education
Experience
Queensland Department of Education
Teacher
Queensland Department of Education
February 2013 – Present 6 years 1 month
Sunshine Coast Mc, Queensland, Australia
Broadspectrum
Education Officer
Broadspectrum
November 2016 – October 2017 1 year
Offshore So She is the one responsible for the almost non-existent educational facilities for the refugee children. First with Broadspectrum and now with Paladin. I haven’t been able to establish any familial links with Dutton but it certainly needs investigating by someone.
WOW!!! They’ve removed her Linked In profile. Why would that be? TOO LATE she cried.
So this is why he want’s to keep Asylum Seekers in detention camps ,and re open old ones ,in hope of more arrivals ,pure evil,
I agree, the only reason the Liberals, especially Morrison and Dutton, the right faction are rorting the electoral system, controlling the public broadcaster and feeding the media frenzy, is to stay in power at all costs. What we have is all but an emerging dictatorship or junta, to stay in control whatever the cost; because they are so deep in the shit with corruption, that an alternative government if it gets even the slightest chance will thoroughly expose them and have no option but to prosecute.
We must have that Royal Commission!
https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-dutton-897425159/
RE:
Yep. The secretary of the department must be held to account – but not by you and me because it’s not the citizen voters (us) who are in the position to hold the secretary of the department to account. Guess what – it’s the Minister in charge of that Department (and only that Minister) who is the accountable officer. By the way, in this instance Cabinet might be an interested bystander but has no role to play in the technical sense.
If the departmental secretary has lied to Minister Dutton, or seriously misled his organisational superior (the Minister), then Dutton must act. The buck stops with him. It can’t be blamed away IF the Minister has failed to act. And if that’s the case, it is then incumbent on the Prime Minister to act.
Or is there no chain of command. No authority. No accountability. And no legitimacy. No doubt, Senate estimates will be interesting next week
There were concerns raised about this company back in 2017.
“some clues about Paladin Solutions’ businesses can be found in the records kept by Papua New Guinea’s Investment Promotion Authority.
It says Paladin Solutions PNG Ltd was set up in 2010 and in its latest annual return dated last year the company does not list a business activity or reports employing anyone.”
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/secrecy-surrounds-new-manus-island-security-firm/news-story/a19935aa094dec150d99af2cb35fded6
The stench emanates wherever Dutton and the LNP Govt is.
Brings to mind the LNP fundraising component of the Indue cashless card.
Along with the whispers of contract kickbacks to both main parties being tweedle dumb and tweedle dumber, when in control of the Treasury benches.
Federal ICAC is long overdue.
It will be interesting to see where Roscoe’s queries lead.
The whole thing baffles me, isn’t there supposed to be an open and transparent tendering process when this sort of money is involved, we already went through this corruption of process involving the less offensive half billion GBR contract involving Turnbull last year.
Only one thing certain is that Dutton is lunatic at best (the whole story is insane), corrupt and’or evil at worst and probably all three.
This is a dictatorship, not a democracy.
Re:
And we now know how that turned out to be absolute bullshit – fake news. Not a shred of credible evidence. Bullshit feeds on bullshit. No wonder the ALP wouldn’t go near it – because those in the know knew the Labor connections were most definitely stronger to them than the LNP. (Oh how fake news persists – and persists.
While I suspect something’s afoot here, I also know some very long bows are drawn.
What’s the supposed specific connection to Dutton? Or the LNP in general? Lots of innuendo etc.
Does anyone have specific connections and/or allegations? Be interested to read same.
Curiouser and curiouser.
This from an FB page somehow related to Karen
Dutton, entitled, “A fair go for everyone”
https://www.facebook.com/notes/mark-davis/the-paladin-contract/2377867258925261/
I don’t get MN.
Re-read Dutton’s reply re “closed contracts” in Kampmarks opener.
Did people get to watch the Dutton response in parliament? I did and I know what I think.
MN. what do YOU think of this idea of “closed contracts” (involving vast amounts of money yet no details?)
Shrugs… nothing to see here (opaque?)
Here is that mistress of innuendo, Laura Tingle, on such matters as are being discussed here:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-16/laura-tingle-parliaments-dying-days-two-things-overlooked/10816816?section=analysis
I agree with Paul Walter, having just read Laura Tingle and mention of something fishy re PNG government.
Who are they to demand secrecy. It is not THEIR $ half billion, it is OURS.
The irony is that Dutton, Pyne and even Bronwyn Bishop as well as Georgina Downer (on a Sky panel) emphatically tell their audiences that there is no one in detention on Manus or Nauru it’s all a Leftie conspiracy.
So, we don’t need Paladin do we ?
The refuge won’t go away It’s to good for business
Re my post last night at 10.37pm it seems I was way, way off the mark. Now interested to see the detail of the accountability process. (If there is one. lol)
As a political issue Paladin seems to be alive and well. Estimates will be compulsory viewing. Hope Labor use their best team. Wong should be to the fore. More reason to go to an early election
MN, Penny Wong is good value in the Senate Estimates. When I was a public servant under Howard (🤮) we’d be glued to the TV when she was grilling our disliked Howard-appointed secretary. It was the only low point of the Rudd victory in 2007: losing Penny in the Senate Estimates.
Has to be investigated – have alerted a particular Senator. Probably knows already, but still…
There’s a definite Four Corners episode in this story, if the ABC has the courage to follow it up.
Who knows what else it could uncover?
Join the movement to establish a Federal ICACC, it will retrospectively weed out these criminals for what they are, and deter any wanabe future crooks. Saves heaps on Royal Commissions!
The LinkedIn profile is still there, I found it via a Google search for “Karen Dutton”. Her connections to Border Force and its contractors really make you wonder about her relationship to Dutton.
Extract from “the contract”
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/sycixjk1znb8msr/AAAz9v84-kPW7DGdmKQLnVGaa?dl=0
IN SIGNING THIS CONTRACT CHANGE PROPOSAL, THE SERVICES PROVIDER WARRANTS THAT ALL
COSTS ARE REASONABLE AND PROFIT DOES NOT EXCEED THAT USED IN THE ORIGINAL SERVICES
FEE AND TAKE ACCOUNT OF ANY SAVINGS ON OTHER ASPECTS OF THE SERVICES AFFECTED BY
THE CHANGE PROPOSAL.
So there, all you smarty pants. Only a fair & reasonable profit here (unless of course the previous “services provider” was making squillions, in which case it’s legal.
I wondered earlier about the significance of Karen Dutton, I now understand she is Dutton’s sister!
If that is true, it provides a powder keg. It provides questions to be answered at Estimate Meetings to begin with.
We need a Federal ICAC which investigates past misdeeds, not the Clayton’s version suggested by Morisson.
From what I have found, Dutton has 3 sisters and Karen Dutton had all links to Peter Dutton removed, FB, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
The Paladin Group website provides a list of companies which form the Group. No mention of Paladin Solutions PNG. The Paladin Group does offer Garrison Services and operates from Singapore in the same areas as Paladin Solutions PNG.
https://paladingroup.net/
Obviously Paladin Solutions PNG is operated by another “Holy Warrior”!
Had a swing through Twitter and one page devoted to Paladin seemed also to involve PNG, Mercenaries (are we sponsoring terrorism?)and some very Black names in the shadow world of covert bloodshed.
But what puzzles me most is (shades of Sympathy for the Devil) the curious lack of interest in the story from tabloid msm. I don’t care what anyone says. This is as sinister as f-ck. The scale, opaqueness, objectives- it all is redolent of genuine evil, as are most things Peter Dutton is involved in.
I think the main sleaze media, The Rupert mainly, has to try and make sure Scummo and Crony Inc. are voted back in because Labor doesn’t bow, kowtow, and scrape anywhere near enough as the LNP does to Master Sleaze.
A Federal ICAC ,is what’s needed now more than ever,and the only way we are going to get one ,is to vote Labor ,vote every liberal and National out ,that’s the only way Australian will survive.
Lambert, here is more background:
https://www.afr.com/news/policy/foreign-affairs/how-a-soldier-of-fortune-landed-a-423-million-manus-island-contract-20190214-h1b9s0?fbclid=IwAR06Y6b_ElSU3YZrFwlLKi6aAc7lh__-y2XpEECNrC2Zs7bQ-KBarBZ4MPw
I hope it isn’t blocked/paywalled.
Is Craig Thrupp a suitable individual to be in charge of nearly half a billion dollars, no strings attached?
More likely he is a stooge, How do we know if kickbacks are going to others further up the food chain?
The Fin Review is apparently doing an article tomorrow about links between Paladin and high level officials in the PNG government.
There is a Queensland woman called Karen Dutton who is the Curriculum Officer for Paladin Solutions PNG and who previously worked for Broadspectrum. At this stage, no-one has found a definitive link with Peter Duttion as far as I can see though she has removed her linkedin profile. That could just be due to a totally legit person not wanting the attention of course.
“That could just be due to a totally legit person not wanting the attention of course.” Somehow I doubt it, just a feeling but it has a rather vile stink about it.
There are no smugglers, Ruddock invented them in 1999 to justify vicious cruelty to refugees and of course the MSM and ALP have been helping peddle the nonsense ever since. As it’s legal to seek asylum calling it smuggling is as deranged as calling someone a heroin smuggler after they turn up at the cop shop with heroin strapped outside their clothes and a label HEROIN IN HERE.
If something is a legal right we cannot turn it into a crime in rhetoric without legislating to make a legal right a crime.
Marilyn, we are not talking so much about people smugglers, but people smugglers and detention as an excuse for probable corruption on a huge scale to do with the government exploiting the myth for political purposes and now, obviously continuing elements of the detention regime over some time that offer a remarkable opportunity for deep corruption.
We see now that Its never been just about the sadism, but at least as much, opportunities for monumental corruption, this being the latest example.
Why would the politicians let go of a racket like this?
Also, beefing up surveillance, data retention and arbitrary detention offer lovely secondary avenues for kickbacks as well as enabling the pigs to crush dissent here.
I should imagine Karen Dutton will coming forward very quickly to clear her name if she is not involved (smiles), to the tune of “fancy me having him for a brother” here’s a pic of my real family”, before the onlooking cameras of national meeja..
For those of you interested, here is an article I just picked up at the Grauniad, despite its comments section now already closed.
Where/ why do they hide this stuff?
From Paul Karp, one of their straight writers, a report out announcing that Penny Wong wants to questions aspects in the Senate. Also mentioned is the load of nonsense from Xtian Porter, who still hasn’t quite learned the knack of telling the truth.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/feb/17/coalition-argues-future-labor-government-could-soften-rules-on-medevac#comments
Even though the HQ is a tent on the beach and waiting for the phone to go on, they relied on the PM saying, ” if you have a go you’ll get a go.”
Jesus Wept. You couldnt make this shit up.
One for Marilyn Shepherd.
Long ago people used to put heads on stakes outside the city walls as a warning to scare off “the unwanted” from entering.
Have we really come such a long way since then?
The method has changed but the purpose is the same – scapegoating a select group people as a warning to others.
Unfortunately it hasn’t stopped others from flying in and if only 2% (as reported) of the 64,000 who came that way during the last 6 years it’s still more people being granted asylum in that way than those still languishing off-shore.
The argument that they have papers is also false because according to Border Force reports they enter with false passports and then produce the real ones when asking for asylum. Why no outrage over what must be another form of off-shore enterprise manufacturing counterfeit identification?
It’s apparently votes, not boats and not facts but “nuance” that matters.
More and more this whole exercise comes across as pure hoky.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/small-security-firm-given-less-than-a-week-to-bid-for-huge-manus-island-contract-20190217-p50ydh.html
I’ve never done it here in Australia, but in the UK for family tree research all the records of births, marriages and deaths are available for public access. If it’s the same here, surely a simple matter for someone to look up Peter Dutton’s birth certificate, and then look up Helen Dutton’s and see if the parents are the same… His date of birth must be on wikipedia or somewhere, and surely ‘Dutton’ isn’t that common a name that someone couldn’t guess her approximate year of birth and do a search a few years either side…?
Diane, I thought the same thing today.. should be a doddle for some staffer.
Re Karen Dutton. At this stage, journalists, ALP staffers (in particular) and the like have sliced and diced any connection to Minister Dutton to the Nth degree. No line of inquiry’s been spared. What they’ve found (or not) remains a mystery. Nevertheless with so many on the trail, one should be surprised that the waters remain so calm. Not a ripple (to date). No-one has broached the subject at all. No denials. No confirmations. Dutton himself is strangely mute on the matter.
Strange! Very, very strange!
MN,
Derryn Hinch asked about it today in Senate estimates, They took it on notice.
Yes KL. while I flicked between different hearings, I missed Hinch. Focussed on Wong and her forensics.
Taking that question on notice is just buying time. But WHY? Why the silence? Why not the front (or back) foot? Something very, very strange going on. What’s the deep game? Beyond me.
Lets face it, most of us, if lumbered with that surname would have rushed to change it by deedpoll by now, relative or not! Perhaps that’s why the delay…
Details of Peter Dutton’s ancestry. I have a current sub with Ancestry so I’ll use the details from below link and see what I find for you.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/markdistefano/dutton-through-the-ages
Taking a question on notice at this stage means that it probably won’t need to answered before the election. Of course, if it comes back that she’s Dutton’s sister, it does seem rather strange that Dutton himself couldn’t have just cleared that up by making a public statement to that effect. “Yes, we’ve cleared it up and she is related to Peter…” and then Petey says, “Oh, THAT Karen Dutton…”
Karen Dutton’s LinkedIn profile has been removed. Any private detective interested in following this up pro bono publico?
Interesting response from Ian Stewart, director of “Paladin Group” in relation to various media reports:
https://paladingroup.net/statement-21-02-2019/
If the response is correct, then it seems Australian media have got a number of Paladins confused with others that have (very) similar names. This is hardly surprising when our media DO NOT IDENTIFY CORPORATE CONCERNS CORRECTLY, using abbreviations such as “Paladin” when the company that has the “contract” with the Commonwealth of Australia is Paladin Holdings Pte Ltd, a Singapore based company. How would you, being correctly named James Arthur Jones, like being identified as “James Arthur”? It’s factually incorrect and makes investigative searching a waste of bloody time.
The media’s case isn’t helped when they show pictures of two different addresses on Nepean Esplanade, Nepean Bay 5223 as being the former “Paladin” registered office (or, as the media put it, “head office”, a different thing entirely), one address being a single storey dwelling and the other a two storey dwelling some distance away to the east.
I’m not trying to whitewash any potential dodgy dealings here, but it would help if the media got their facts right.
A political party which favours small government, no regulation, private enterprise over public, low taxes, neoliberalism …
Should we be surprised that offshore detention is a business opportunity to the greed is still good and never went away crowd?
I don’t expect anything more from the LNP.
“… but it would help if the media got their facts right.”
That would be a ‘first’.
The “media” is not intended to inform – it’s purpose is to ‘influence’.
It’s hard to believe this article was only presented a mere ten or so days ago. Paladin and their association with the PNG PM, Dud-do’s dubious contracting abilities, the equally shameless contracting on Nauru. ‘Canstruct’, being Queensland based, raises eyebrows all on its own. Not that anyone would accuse the Right Honourable Dudd of corruption. His portfolio of properties increased to well over $20mill while he was earning $500k pa, all the while his vote perpetuates the sham and scam of negative gearing. If you spend five minutes on ANY search engine, you will see these scams for what they are.
Money laundering. Nauruan and PNG politicians, and their Australian counterparts, seem to generate considerable personal wealth, whilst entering contracts of dubious standing. That so many Australian ‘businessmen’ are conduits between the respective governments and their woeful ministers is a matter of fact and record. That these contracts are shrouded in secrecy, justified by such nonsense as ‘commercial in confidence’ or ‘national security’, is an insult to the most mediocre of intellects.
Now we have stories of Paladin staff walking off in protest about their wages and conditions. $2-3 per hour. No wonder they had to source their workers from Pacific Island nations.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/fiji-security-guards-headed-for-manus-as-tensions-mount-over-centre-s-closure
Notwithstanding the Fijian workers were offered good wages and delivered far less, they were used as scab labour to reduce previous pay levels and disallow ‘local workers’. No wonder there was tension across Manus.
“It claimed the employees were underpaid, with no risk allowances added to the rates of $2-$3 an hour, or overtime paid for shifts of up to 12 hours, and that those who had transitioned from jobs with the former contractor Broadspectrum had had their pay cut.
Hundreds of employees walked away from their work and staged a sit-in in Lorengau on Tuesday morning.”
“That attempt to bring in foreign workers sparked tension on Manus Island and a standoff with another security provider who felt his company, Kingfisher, should have been given the contract.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/feb/26/paladin-staff-on-manus-walk-off-job-over-pay-and-working-conditions
And the ultimate irony? Mr Boochani, a journalist of some distinction, an author of considerable note, ‘tweeted’ on their behalf.
“The Paladin staff are protesting in Manus right now. This company has made $423m while paying local staff only $450 per month.People are very angry at this company and want to be respected. The big companies made the refugees and locals victims while they have made so much money.”
The irony being that Mr Boochani is an Iranian detainee, incarcerated indefinitely for the crime of escaping a barbaric government. He will NEVER be allowed access to the only escape route from the gulag, as trump has Iranians on his no go list. As for the please explain, we are on the ‘no comment’ merry go round.
“Paladin redirected media inquiries to the Home Affairs Department, saying only: “Our number one priority and focus right now is the safety, security and wellbeing of our staff, the communities in which we operate and the people in our care.”
The Home Affairs Department has not yet responded to SBS News inquiry.”
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/asylum-seekers-say-paladin-workers-have-walked-off-the-job-on-manus-island
That is merely one of our government’s transgressions. Give it an hour or so and there will be another one. And we are meant to believe that, as they lurch from one catastrophe to another, their support is largely unaltered.
Thank you Dr Kampmark and commenters. Lest. We. Forget. Take care
The horrific, nauseating stench of corruption right throughout the LNP aka the Lying Nazi Parasites, is so overwhelming it CANNOT be ignored. HOWEVER, despite six years of EPIC self-serving corruption, blatant criminal nepotism, politically-biased Royal Commissions into unions, the ABC and into the offices of the ALP that have cost Australian taxpayers BILLIONS and amounted to nothing, the LNP’s staggering waste of countless billions on dodgy deals, the LNP’s horrific callous inhumanity targeting the poorest, most vulnerable people in our society and locking up innocent LEGAL asylum seekers (and their traumatised children) INDEFINITELY in off-shore concentration camps, selling off vast areas of land and assets to foreign-owned multinational corporate predators, defunding our children’s State school education, defunding and privatising sections of Medicare, expending BILLIONS on building PRIVATELY OWNED DAMS, in the middle of one of the worst droughts on record, where the water stored is kept aside for the SOLE USE of selfishly rapacious cotton growers in southern Qld and Barnyard Joyce’s electorate of northern NSW – despite ALL the increasing corruption, bottomless greed and catastrophic vandalism of our environment, the small majority of totally apathetic, mindless Murdoch-manipulated and misinformed people of Australia are prepared to overlook ALL of this sickening misuse, abuse of taxpayer funds and unending corruption and keep on voting for the worst, most dangerously undemocratic, totally inept fascist regime in our nation’s history! So ashamed of Australia right now!