In December, an impressive young Papua New Guinean named Jason Siwat, the director of the refugee program for the Catholic Bishops Conference of PNG and the Solomon Islands, travelled to Canberra bearing two important documents.
The first was a letter from the bishops to Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil asking the government to urgently bring to Australia a group of refugees, now 57 following some acceptances by New Zealand, who been taken to the capital of Port Moresby from the Australian-run Manus Island detention facility in late 2021.
The arrangement was made between the PNG government, led by Prime Minister James Marape who visits Canberra this week, and the Morrison government. Details of the “confidential bilateral agreement” have not been made public, despite pressure on the Albanese government and claims of contractual irregularities and a lack of transparency at both ends.
Dennis Richardson’s review of the management of regional processing procurement by the Department of Home Affairs is keenly........