US firm fined for Australian immigration security failures. How much? Border force refuses to say

The US private prison company running Australian immigration detention centres was slapped with penalties by the Australian government after allowing a dozen escapes, but the head of the Australian Border Force has declined to reveal the cost of the punishment. Greens senator David Shoebridge was scathing of what he called “a disturbing set of reports” about private prison company MTC and its local subsidiary Secure Journeys, revealed in a Guardian Australia investigation this week . In a Senate estimates hearing on Thursday, the home affairs department confirmed MTC’s US director was summoned for a meeting with the government after a series of catastrophic security failures, including the escape of high-risk detainees and the stabbing and hospitalisation of staff. But the ABF commissioner, Gavan Reynolds, said he wouldn’t provide details of the financial penalties issued to Secure Journeys, despite confirming there had been “charge events” (fines) after 12 separate escapes from facilities run by MTC since May last year. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email “I have received legal advice that, because of the commercial-in-confidence nature of the contract, I cannot publicly discuss the quanta of that charge event,” Reynolds told Senate estimates. MTC signed a $2.3bn contract to run Australia’s onshore immigration detention network from early 2025. …