Jon Stanhope says decision to reopen detention centre, which is housing just four people, should not have been made

This article is more than 10 months old

This article is more than 10 months old

Former Christmas Island administrator Jon Stanhope says the federal government is spending $20m to sustain a “patently political decision” by awarding its detention centre maintenance contract to a phosphate mining company.

CI Resources, an ASX-listed mining firm, was recently awarded a $20m contract to provide maintenance for the Christmas Island detention centre, Guardian Australia revealed on Sunday. The detention centre currently houses just four people.

The company will provide “repairs, maintenance, cleaning and waste removal” and has about eight cleaners and six gardeners at the centre.

Guardian Australia spoke to two recent administrators of Christmas Island – Stanhope and Brian Lacy – who said there was some logic in giving the work to CI Resources, given it was one of only two private firms operating on the island, tended to employ locals, and had relevant experience.

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But Stanhope, a former Labor chief minister of the ACT, said the contract effectively meant taxpayers were spending $20m to sustain a political move by the Morrison government.

“The starting position in relation to this decision is that the centre shouldn’t have been opened in the first place,” Stanhope said.

“I’m one of those who believes it was a patently political decision. It was designed to make the prime minister and the home affairs minister look tough on asylum seekers, and it was designed to wedge the Labor party, which it does successfully because the Labor party is so weak and conflicted on the issue.”

The detention centre was reopened at a cost of $185m in the leadup to the May election, a move accompanied by a public relations blitz by the Coalition government.

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It has barely housed any asylum seekers since. The only current residents are two Tamil asylum seekers and their two Australian-born daughters, who are currently fighting deportation to Sri Lanka.

Lacy, administrator of Christmas Island for three years from 2009, said CI Resources already accounted for a huge amount of the local Christmas Island economy, had experience in maintenance, and had an existing pool of workers already on the island.

“They do [account for a large amount of the local economy]. It was about 60% of the economy when I was there,” he said. “I’m not sure whether it’s changed now. It’s not just the mining of course, it’s the other offshoots and the various businesses it has.”

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The former Western Australian minister for state development Clive Brown sits on the company’s board. The contract was awarded using an open tender, but CI Resources was one of only two firms to bid for the work.

Stanhope said CI Resources was easily the biggest employer on the island, and said the island’s population had roughly halved when the detention centre was first closed.

He said there was some logic to giving CI Resources the work, and said it would have been welcomed by Christmas Island residents, given its use of local workers.

“It’s a decision that would probably be applauded on the island,” he said.