One of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s closest friends and local political allies runs a company bidding for a $1 billion contract to process migrant visas.
Scott Briggs, a board member of the Cronulla Sharks rugby league team, has previously been Mr Morrison’s campaign director in his southern Sydney electorate of Cook.
The 46-year-old businessman lives a 10-minute drive away from the Prime Minister’s Port Hacking house in the Sutherland Shire at nearby Gymea Bay.
The former lawyer is also the chief executive of Pacific Blue Capital, a private investment company with a 19 per cent stake in the Australian Visa Processing consortium, which is tendering for a $1 billion contract to process visas.
Scott Briggs (left), a board member of the Cronulla Sharks rugby league team, has previously been Scott Morrison’s campaign director in his southern Sydney electorate of Cook
One of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s closest friends and local political allies runs a company bidding for a $1 billion contract to process migrant visas
Scott Briggs, a board member of the Cronulla Sharks rugby league team, has previously been Mr Morrison’s campaign director in his southern Sydney electorate of Cook
With only two other companies, Accenture and Australia Post, bidding for the lucrative visa contract, The Australian reports that Mr Briggs is the driving force behind the bid.
His company launched in 2016 with former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull among the invited dignitaries.
In another twist Mr Briggs, a former commercial director with the Nine Entertainment Corporation, previously worked with new Immigration Minister David Coleman, when he was a director of the Nine Network and the billionaire Packer family’s former Publishing and Broadcasting Limited.
The bid, however, is being handled instead by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who lost the immigration portfolio under new PM Scott Morrison’s August reshuffle.
Scott Morrison, a No.1 ticket holder with the Cronulla Sharks, will leave the tender for Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to tackle
Mr Briggs, a former commercial director with the Nine Entertainment Corporation, previously worked with new Immigration Minister David Coleman (left), when he was a Nine director
‘The Request for Tender process for the Global Digital Platform will be conducted by the Department of Home Affairs and in accordance with strict probity requirements,’ a spokesman for Mr Morrison told Daily Mail Australia.
A spokesman for Mr Coleman said the minister had cited a potential conflict of interest and asked to have another cabinet colleague handle the tender.
‘I can confirm, Minister Coleman has not been involved in the proposed visa processing platform and will have no involvement in the future,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
Mr Briggs was also politically close to Mr Turnbull, running his 2004 campaign in his former Sydney eastern suburbs seat of Wentworth after he overthrew the previous sitting member Peter King in a preselection.
A year earlier, he had joined Mr Turnbull’s venture capital investment firm Pillemer Capital, which he had helped to establish.
The Labor Opposition has previously targeted Mr Brigg’s close links with the Liberal Party and asked questions about the Australian Visa Processing bid.
But they toned down this line of attack earlier this year after former Labor senator and communications minister Stephen Conroy joined the company board.
In late February, shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus had previously asked about Pacific Blue Capital’s close links to Mr Turnbull.
‘Given it’s reported the prime minister launched Pacific Blue Capital and that Mr Briggs worked for the prime minister’s private investment firm, does the prime minister have a conflict of interest in relation to this $1 billion government contract, and if so, how will he manage it?’,’ he asked.