Australian Immigration Daily News

This information has been extracted from the REPS NOTICE PAPER: Questions In Writing - 016 Ms Sharkie: Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services & Multicultural Affairs about "Why has Govt sought to privatise visa services?":

MS SHARKIE: To ask the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs—

(1) Why has the Government sought to privatise visa services.

(2) What national security assessments have been undertaken regarding the decision to issue the Request for Tender (RFT) Delivering Visa Services for Australia—Global Digital Platform.

(3) Has the Government identified any national security concerns with privatising visa services as a result of those assessments.

(4) Is this RFT a ‘limited’ tender; if so, (a) why, (b) what are the requirements of this limited tender, and (c) does the RFT adhere to these requirements.

(5) Is it a fact that two prospective tenderers have so far publicly put up their hand for the visa contract, as reported by Paul Karp in a recent media article ‘Labor threatens to abandon Coalition’s $1bn deal to privatise visa processing’ (The Guardian, 19 February 2019).

(6) Is it possible that the Government could sign a contract before October 2019, and can he indicate if that is the Government’s intention.

(7) Does the current RFT timeline indicate that Phase One of the tender closed on 20 February and allows for the possibility that the Government will not pursue the second stage of the tender. (8) If the Government decides Phase Two is unnecessary, what would be the indicative timeline for contract signing and service delivery.

(9) Will the Government be including standard Freedom of Information clauses in the final contract awarded under the RFT process.

Source: Privatising-visa-services.pdf