Australia’s federal work safety regulator has told the government it’s likely breaking the law. Comcare says violence, drug use and fires inside the country’s immigration detention centres aren’t being controlled, according to internal documents.
The notice goes to the heart of what a government owes people it locks up and those it pays to guard them. “I have formed the reasonable belief that the department is contravening section 19 of the WHS Act by failing to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers and other persons,” Comcare said. “In particular, the risks associated with violence, aggression, and the presence of illicit substances and improvised weaponry are not being adequately managed.”
Violence and Drugs at Melbourne
The incidents at the Melbourne immigration detention centre (MIDC) read like a prison-yard log. On 18 August, a violent altercation between two groups left six detainees hospitalised with “slashing and stabbing injuries made using improvised weapons.” On 10 September, a detainee was found overdosed in his room, and staff administered Naloxone, a drug that reverses opioid overdose effects.
Comcare said the events showed the department had failed to control rising incidents of this type at MIDC and across the broader network. The department told the regulator it had taken a range of actions, but Comcare wasn’t satisfied those measures had been shown to eliminate or minimise risks as far as reasonably practicable. The hazards, it said, pose an ongoing risk of serious harm to workers and others in the centres.
Fires at Villawood
A separate Comcare document recorded eight fire-related incidents at Villawood between February and May. Earlier warnings had come first. On 23 September 2025, staff from Management and Training Corporation (MTC) rushed into a detainee’s room to rescue him from a fire without proper safety equipment. Two workers ended up in hospital.
The regulator found the department hadn’t carried out its own systematic review of “all fire and smoke control measures falling within its influence or control,” a likely breach of work health and safety regulations. Repeated fires over roughly four months, Comcare wrote, “particularly after previous regulatory intervention concerning substantially the same risk, provided repeated and compelling circumstances requiring the department to review the effectiveness of relevant control measures.”
A Costly Contract Under Strain
The sums involved are considerable. MTC, a US private prison company used by Donald Trump to hold ICE detainees, won a $2.3bn detention contract in late 2024. Guardian Australia reported earlier this year on what it called catastrophic security failings across the onshore network since then. Canberra has tried to lift MTC’s performance through financial penalties and a fiery meeting last year between the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, and the company’s global president.
The Guardian has also reported escapes, staff injuries, and sick detainees missing medical appointments because there weren’t enough staff to escort them, all since Secure Journeys, MTC’s local subsidiary, took over.
Lyndal Ryan, national president of the United Workers Union, which represents workers in the centres, said the notices showed “the continuing dangerous situations facing workers and detainees inside detention centres, and Secure Journeys’ inability or unwillingness to address those issues.” The union has repeatedly raised concerns about understaffing. Ryan said Comcare had made clear the department was responsible for pulling Secure Journeys into line. “The list of eight fires at Villawood over a four-month period are signs of the instability and chaos our members are witnessing almost every day,” she said.
A Secure Journeys spokesperson said the company’s “commitment to maintaining safe and secure operations, as well as both staff and detainee welfare remains our top priority.” An Australian Border Force spokesperson said the agency continually reviews safety and security arrangements, and that Comcare notices are “assessed and responded to through established workplace health and safety processes.”
Why This Matters:
A government that outsources a core function still owns the outcome. Canberra signed a $2.3bn contract, tried penalties, and even convened a tense meeting with the contractor’s global president. Yet its own regulator now says the department is likely breaching the law it’s meant to uphold. That’s a problem for taxpayers, who are funding a service that isn’t delivering basic safety, and for the principle that the state must meet the standards it imposes on everyone else.
Contracts need enforcement. Comcare’s finding that the department itself failed to review fire controls suggests oversight, not just the contractor, is where the system is slipping. Border security depends on detention that’s orderly and lawful. Chaos undermines it.