David Adeang briefly visited Parliament House in an unannounced visit, where he is understood to have met with the home affairs minister.
The Nauruan president's clandestine visit comes amid accusations criminal bikie gangs were awarded a lucrative contract to provide security for former detainees transferred to Nauru.
A high-ranking Home Affairs Department official has blown the whistle on what he says was corruption infecting the federal government’s offshore detention regime, alleging he was pressured to cover up suspected rorting and graft so Australia could keep using Nauru as a border security outpost.
Home Affairs acting assistant secretary Dr Derek Elias has alleged, in an interview with this masthead and 60 Minutes, that Australian taxpayers paid millions of dollars for nonexistent or unnecessary offshore asylum seeker services as part of a system that “enabled” corruption by Nauruan politicians and Australian companies.
Elias alleges Home Affairs – through negligence, mismanagement and renewal of corruption-prone contracts to provide offshore immigration services on the tiny pacific island – had likely facilitated the bribery of Nauruan officials and encouraged systemic rorting by the department’s former major contractor Canstruct.
“We created an enabling environment for corruption,” Elias said. “We were renewing contracts which were no longer fit for purpose. We were overpaying for services that were no longer required or delivered.”
Elias oversaw offshore procurement for Home Affairs between 2019 and 2021 and is still technically employed by the federal government, albeit on extended leave after claiming his departmental role severely impacted his health. He risks dismissal or other serious sanctions by speaking publicly.
Elias alleges Home Affairs – through negligence, mismanagement and renewal of corruption-prone contracts to provide offshore immigration services on the tiny pacific island – had likely facilitated the bribery of Nauruan officials and encouraged systemic rorting by the department’s former major contractor Canstruct.
He said department officials had no way of holding Nauruans to account.
“Money was handed over to them,” he said. “How that money was spent, where it ended up, we had no visibility of, certainly my team didn’t. We just pushed the money into the contracts.
“That was the environment that we were enabling by pouring money into a trough, basically, of broken contracts and services … I had a moral problem with that, and I still do.”
In a contract renewal he oversaw in mid-2021, Elias claims he identified up to $16 million in taxpayer dollars paid to Canstruct for nonexistent or unnecessary services. He suspected the firm’s overcharging ran into the tens of millions of dollars.
The public servant said he recently gave crucial evidence to an ongoing federal police corruption probe into Canstruct.
The inquiry, codenamed Operation Bernie-Beveridge, is examining how Canstruct had charged Home Affairs millions of dollars to pay for insurance premiums now suspected to have been used to insure fast cars, mansions, expensive art and a yacht.
Elias alleged Canstruct had pressured Home Affairs to pay the multimillion-dollar insurance premiums during contract negotiations and concealed the firm’s decision to use taxpayer funds to insure personal items.
“I do remember at the last negotiation that Canstruct made it very clear … to me personally in the corridor ... they were happy to negotiate on a variety of things, but not the insurances.”
“I found it very confronting,” he said of the suspected abuse of funds, while also claiming he was encouraged to cover up suspected wrongdoing.
“There was a very strong culture within that Home Affairs regime at the time where questioning the decisions to keep things going in Nauru would not be conducive to your employment.
“You’re expected to stay quiet about your concerns. Absolutely.”
While Elias’ visibility over suspected Home Affairs contract dealings ceased in 2021, his decision to go public comes with the Albanese government facing growing scrutiny around a separate immigration deal with Nauru.
Arthur Boyd’s The Old Mine is another of the allegedly insured artworks.
The tiny country recently agreed to take hundreds of former immigration detainees deemed too dangerous to stay in Australia. Nauru is granting visas to the so-called NZYQ cohort in return for up to $2.5 billion in Australian taxpayer funds over 30 years.
On Saturday, another whistleblower, former Australian soldier Oisin Donohoe, revealed how the Finks bikie gang had infiltrated this deal via a Nauruan security company in an attempt to make millions of dollars from this pool of funds.
“It was pretty confronting to know that an outlaw motorcycle group was running a company that had got a government contract [on Nauru],” said Donohoe, who previously served almost five years as a rifleman in the Australian Army.
He described it as “mind-boggling” that bikies could be part a “contract to oversee quite a significant national security item”.
A 2024 inquiry by former spy chief Dennis Richardson raised similar concerns to those of Elias about Home Affairs’ failure to safeguard government funds on Nauru in respect to the offshore processing regime.
The Albanese government regards its offshore processing arrangement on Nauru as entirely separate from the NZYQ deal, despite both involving huge sums of public money spent on the notoriously corrupt island.
The Richardson inquiry led to departmental reforms meant to improve due diligence surrounding offshore immigration contracts.
In a statement, Home Affairs insisted that improved controls had been embedded in its ongoing offshore processing regime, which comprises about 100 asylum seekers on Nauru.
But documents provided to this masthead suggest unlawful activity, including the artificial inflation of subcontracts, continues to occur under the watch of the company hired by Home Affairs to replace Canstruct to run offshore processing on Nauru, MTC.
MTC referred queries from this masthead to the department.
Elias said he believed the rorting of Australian funds continued apace on Nauru.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that that happened and it continues to happen,” he said.
Elias said he had wrestled for years with the idea of becoming a public whistleblower.
“It’s been on my mind for a very long time but ultimately, I think it’s almost a duty,” he said. “I think it’s very important for the public to know how their money has been misspent.
An Aston Martin Superleggera, similar to that alleged to have been insured.
“We were propping up a system that was unaccountable. We were paying for things that didn’t happen.”
Elias also hit back at what he described as attempts by Home Affairs to cast a cloud over his honesty and motivations, saying he stood to gain nothing by airing his claims and had been unjustly attacked by his employer for accusing it of wrongdoing.
“I’m really, really sick of it,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong. Why would I have to apologise or feel guilty about pointing out that we have spent money that we shouldn’t have, and it’s gone to people who have put it in their own pockets?”
Canstruct has previously faced allegations it paid subcontractors owned by or connected to suspected corrupt Nauruan politicians, who then pocketed excessive profits.
One of those accused of improperly benefiting from these kickbacks is President David Adeang, who signed the recent NZYQ immigration deportation deal with the Albanese government.
In his interview, Elias claimed it was an open secret in Home Affairs that suspected corrupt Nauruan officials would seek to profit from Australian taxpayer-funded offshore immigration deals.
“Canstruct had a very cosy relationship, I would say, with the government of Nauru providing additional services and favours, sweeteners, if you will, that they paid to the government of Nauru, which I found quite shocking,” he said.
Adeang has a sordid history of suspected corruption. Australian security agencies previously warned the federal government he might have pocketed alleged kickbacks paid by firms subcontracted to run Australia’s offshore processing regime on Nauru in 2020.
Adeang has also been suspected of using Australian banks to money launder funds meant to be used to run offshore processing, according to intelligence briefings shared with federal government agencies and senior ministers.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke declined an interview request, but the Home Affairs Department said in a statement that its offshore processing regime was carefully managed and included “robust” due diligence.
“Suppliers must meet ethical, performance and diligence standards expected of them as suppliers to the Commonwealth, and they must have the capability and capacity to deliver and perform in accordance with the agreed contract terms and conditions,” the statement said.
Canstruct did not respond to a request for comment but has previously declined to comment on the allegations being probed by the AFP.
The rise of anti-immigration sentiment underscores a fragile consensus – while multiculturalism remains official government policy, its meaning and legitimacy are increasingly contested.
As Jakubowicz observes, Australia is a country with a racist past, striving not to have a racist future.
Australia’s fragile multicultural consensus under threat. By Wanning Sun, Pearls & Irritations
And both permanent and temporary migrants add to economic activity when they work and spend money here. Speaking last year about whether the spike in migration had affected the economy, Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock said she believed it was neutral overall.
"New migrants add to demand … they have certainly added to pressure on the housing market, we know that," she said. "But on the other hand, they have added to labour supply … I think it's been pretty much of a muchness."
These charts show the effect of migration on Australia's housing story. By Tom Crowley, ABC News
She highlights border security, migrant deportations, attempts to disrupt fentanyl trafficking, US tariffs on other countries and "restored peace in the Middle East", as key achievements of the Trump administration.
Hanson outlines One Nation agenda at surprise Mar-a-Lago address. By Ewa Staszewska, SBS News
The war has killed more than 40,000 people, displaced more than 14 million people, and fuelled outbreaks of diseases believed to have killed thousands.
El-Fasher was the Sudanese military's last stronghold in Darfur, and its fall secures the RSF's hold over most of the large western region.
A human rights law organisation has applied to be heard in the case of a man facing deportation to Nauru, arguing the government should be blocked from deporting people to places where they face death or serious harm.
The application is for the Human Rights Law Centre to be heard in the matter as a third-party, meaning it would prosecute a legal principle rather than represent a person.
Lawyers move to block Nauru deportations over lack of adequate healthcare. By Maani Truu, ABC News
For all the talk of social cohesion, what we are really grappling with is belonging – who feels they belong and who is made to feel they do not. The language of cohesion implies the fabric of Australia is fraying, yet belonging has never been evenly woven. Some are born wrapped in the flag; others are asked, again and again, to prove their place beneath it. The Australian flag, held up as a symbol of unity, too often becomes a banner of exclusion – waved to assert dominance rather than shared identity.
Of social cohesion, belonging and the Australian flag. By Stella Yee, Pearls & Irritations
“May this reunion be a seed of hope in a world drowning in injustice. And may every family separated by war, siege, and borders be reunited soon.”
Since October 2023, Shamikh had desperately tried every avenue to get his elderly mother, who held a valid Australian visa, out of the conflict zone.
The grandmother, now safe in the western Sydney suburb of Bankstown, still thinks of those she left behind.
Australian-first treaty legislation passed in Victoria's parliament to applause and tears late on Thursday night.
The Statewide Treaty Bill enshrines a democratically elected body for First Peoples.
Australian-first treaty legislation passes in Victorian parliament. ABC News
A government source has told SBS News that around 280 members of the NZYQ cohort are to be granted visas in Nauru and will live among the local population of around 12,000 people and would not be going into detention.
Burke confirms first cohort of NZYQ deportees in Nauru. By Ewa Staszewska, SBS News
Adnan says he found out about his visa for Nauru in the middle of the night when border force officers came to his door and took him back into detention.
“These days are like living in a nightmare. I made mistakes since I came to Australia – I have been punished for those mistakes. I have tried everything to put my life back on track. I am not a young man – I cannot keep rebuilding my life. I do not know why Australia has selected me for this terrible punishment,” he says.
The first member of the so-called NZYQ cohort has been quietly deported to Nauru under an opaque deal struck by the Australian government.
Both the Coalition and the Greens have taken aim at the "secrecy" of the removal, urging the government to share further details about the agreement that could end up costing Australia $2.5 billion.
The 24-year-old, originally from Yemen, is one of just 20 refugees due to come to Australia as part of this pilot program.
The program, open to refugees aged 18-30, provides a permanent visa for those chosen to take part.
It allows refugees to pursue qualifications in nursing, civil engineering, technology, business or economics.
The pathway is running as a pilot program with 20 participants in 2026.
Nearly a decade ago, posters began popping up in cities around the country with a striking image of a Muslim cameleer and the caption "Aussie" — provoking conversations at a time when racial tensions were high.
The artist, Peter Drew, wanted to challenge what it means to be, and who exactly is, Australian.
Today, against a backdrop of anti-immigration protests and sentiment across the country, his message has renewed relevance.
He says it's time to strike up another conversation, as he reprises the project for its tenth anniversary with at least six new profiles.
The words echo those of Shakir, a Bangladeshi man I met on the OV – as the Ocean Viking ship is commonly nicknamed. He told me: “You refreshed our minds with the workshops. Since Libya and the sea, we felt lost. Now, we understand the journey that we’ve undertaken.”
The freedom of life after work is allowing people to fight for what they say is the chance for a better world.
But what drives these retirees to protest when they could be slowing down and enjoying life?
Australian visa holders in Gaza have the paperwork they need to flee the razed Palestinian territory but remain trapped due to closed borders, prompting refugee advocates to intensify calls for support.
Ahmed Abumarzouq’s two nephews were granted humanitarian visas on 15 October – two days after all living Israeli hostages were returned to Israel under the tentative Gaza ceasefire plan, which has not yet produced a possible border re-opening. For the small number who are eligible for Australian consular assistance – those whose immediate family members are citizens or permanent residents – the pathway to Australia is still complex.
Diwali – the festival of lights – is one of the Hindu calendar’s biggest celebrations (though Sikhs, Jains and some Buddhists celebrate it too). The festival hails the triumph of light over dark and goodness prevailing over evil.
Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke stressed the need to keep the debate surrounding migration respectful.
"People used to talk about being able to engage in dog whistle politics, and you give a message, and only certain people would really hear what you were saying. It's not a dog whistle any more. It's a set of bag pipes coming over the hill," he said.
"We are a multicultural nation, and when people sledge multicultural Australia, there are a whole lot of Australian citizens who hear it, feel it deeply.
Meanwhile, there have been tense scenes across the country as anti-immigration rallies were met by anti-racism counterprotests in capital cities, as well as some smaller regional centres.
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