| Buying silence? Immigration asked charities for multimillion-dollar bond |
Charities working in immigration detention centres were asked to pay multimillion-dollar bonds that could be forfeited if they spoke out against government policy, as the Coalition sought to maintain secrecy over border protection.
In what critics say is the latest evidence of the government's determination to control information about its immigration detention program, aid agencies including Save the Children and the Australian Red Cross were asked to offer "performance security" – in one case, of $2 million – during negotiations over contracts relating to work caring for asylum seekers and refugees.
It came as the non-profit organisations were also being asked to agree to clauses that would prevent them speaking to the media without government approval.
Interpreting it as a gag clause, Save the Children refused, and reached a compromise last year that did not include a bond, and allowed hundreds of staff to continue working on the island.
But a year on, Save the Children will end its work on Nauru on Saturday, having subsequently lost its contracts to Transfield Services and Connect Settlement Services.
Other organisations, including the Red Cross and Connect, agreed to pay a performance bond. For-profit Transfield Services, which has had security and administrative roles and is now taking over Save the Children's welfare work with asylum seekers on Nauru, routinely agrees to bonds under its government contracts.
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