As a Senate committee prepares to hand down its report on Australia's offshore-processing regime — due by 1 June 2026 — the numbers and the testimony point to an uncomfortable verdict for a Labor government that once promised to do better. The Albanese government has struck a deportation deal with Nauru worth up to A$2.5 billion, even as detainees tell the inquiry of hunger, violence and neglect.
What is the Senate inquiry examining?
The Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee, handed the reference on 27 November 2025, was due to report by 1 June 2026. Its terms of reference reach past conditions to the money: "the payments made by the Australian government to primary and secondary contractors" and "the integrity of arrangements made for the delivery of services and value [for] money for Australian taxpayers." At its centre is the 2025 Australia–Nauru agreement to resettle non-citizens, which the government agreed to fund to the tune of up to A$2.5 billion — and which the Refugee Council of Australia estimates could ultimately cost up to A$7 billion.
How much is it costing, and for whom?
The figures are stark. Human Rights Watch put annual spending on Nauru at about A$560 million in 2024-25 — roughly A$5.6 million per person each year, against just A$3,962 a year to support someone on a bridging visa in the community. About 100 people were held on Nauru in that period, and the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre says A$581 million is budgeted for offshore processing this financial year. "Australia has spent billions of dollars trying to offload its responsibilities onto poorer countries instead of upholding its international obligations," said HRW researcher Annabel Hennessy.
| Measure | Figure (A$) |
|---|---|
| Nauru deal — headline | up to 2.5 billion |
| Lifetime estimate (Refugee Council) | up to 7 billion |
| Offshore processing, 2025-26 | 581 million |
| Cost per person each year (Nauru) | 5.6 million |
| Community bridging-visa support, per year | 3,962 |
What does the testimony reveal?
The human picture is grim. Submissions from people held on Nauru, aired by the inquiry, describe assault, robbery and extortion with little police protection, people "forced to skip meals because they cannot afford food," substandard medical care and unaffordable medicine, and repeated power outages that spoil food. "These submissions expose a system where people are being left hungry, unsafe and terrified, despite billions of dollars of Australian taxpayers' money being spent," said the ASRC's deputy chief executive, Jana Favero.
Why does the money trail matter?
The committee's focus on contractor integrity revives questions raised by a 2024 review by former official Dennis Richardson, which found due-diligence failures in offshore contracting — including a Home Affairs contract with a company whose owners were suspected of circumventing US sanctions on Iran, amid "suspicious money movement suggesting laundering and bribery." One contractor, Management and Training Corporation, had been paid more than A$420 million by August 2023. "Proper due diligence was lacking when it came to contracts with relatively small companies," Richardson found. The new inquiry, in effect, asks whether the safeguards have improved even as the spending has grown.
A problem of Labor's own making
For a party that condemned the cruelty and cost of offshore detention in opposition, the trajectory in government is awkward. Labor has expanded the system: signing the Nauru deportation arrangement, carrying out the first removal on 24 October 2025, and legislating to send non-citizens to third countries. The Refugee Council's Paul Power says those dispatched to Nauru are "being sentenced to a lifetime of exile." With the Senate report now due, the real test is whether ministers will account for the billions spent — or let the deadline slip by quietly.