Labor says it will 'strongly oppose' privatising visa applications

Its immigration spokesman,  Shayne Neumann, said on Sunday the party was deeply concerned about letting a private company do the work.

The statement from Mr Neumann's office said that selling off the task currently done by government employees would "mean the loss of thousands of Australian jobs".

It would put at risk "the privacy of applicants, given the transfer of personal data to a private provider, and ultimately weaken the integrity of Australia’s borders".

On Friday, the Department of Home Affairs outlined the next steps in what has been a prolonged process to engage a private company.

The 10-year contract would need perhaps a billion dollars in investment by the winning bidder but the company would be able to levy a service charge for processing some types of visa, and this would generate an estimated revenue to the winner of $315 million a year rising to about $450 million at the the end of the period.

It is not clear whether any incoming Labor government would undo any privatisation if it had already been done or simply oppose it before it happened.

Labor's statement says, "The work of processing and assessing visa applications should be done by highly trained and experienced public servants, who are sensitive to public policy issues, and are accountable ultimately to the Australian government and the Australian people.

"Labor is opposed to the privatisation of Australia’s visa processing system because we will stand up always for our national interests – including well paid jobs and conditions for Australians."

Labor's stance was endorced by the Community and Public Sector Union whose national secretary Nadine Flood said, "The government seems unmoved by the 3000 jobs that are at risk under its plan, and completely oblivious to the disastrous experience of other countries that have already gone down the visa privatisation path."

Two bidders are in the race for the contract.

One is led by Scott Briggs, a Liberal Party heavyweight and a friend of the Prime Minister and also a former colleague of Immigration Minister David Coleman. Mr Briggs runs Pacific Blue Capital, which holds 19 per cent of the Australian Visa Processing Consortium, along with Qantas Ventures, PwC and Ellerston Capital.

The other is a joint bid by Australia Post and Accenture, one of the world's biggest firms of management consultants.

There's no suggestion of any wrongdoing or political interference in the tendering process. Neither Mr Morrison nor Mr Coleman would vote in cabinet decisions about the project.

In October, the government said public service jobs wouldn't be lost under the plan. Old computer systems were struggling to keep up with demand and needed to be overhauled. About 50 different computer systems were currently involved in the processing of visas and rationalisation was needed.

The government has also said it would still be responsible for the actual decisions about who got a visa and who didn't - but it was necessary to outsource the IT system that processed those decisions. It said any sell-off wouldn't lower the security of Australia's borders.

Fees are charged for visas and that generates about $2 billion every year for the public purse. Out-sourcing would not cut that, according to the government - there would be no loss of revenue - but the winning company would be allowed to charge an extra service fee of $35 per temporary visa processed.

There are currently about nine million temporary visas issued a year but that is forecast to rise to 13 million by the end of the 10-year contract, so revenue to the company from the service fee would rise from $315 million a year to $455 million in 10 years time.