{"id":20275,"date":"2026-05-28T20:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T20:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/20275\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T20:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T20:05:08","slug":"government-faces-questions-about-first-payment-to-nauru-under-nzyq-deportee-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/20275\/","title":{"rendered":"Government faces questions about first payment to Nauru under NZYQ deportee deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nauru has withdrawn $30.5 million from a trust established with the Australian government under the NZYQ deportee deal, Senate estimates has heard, providing a rare glimpse into how the funds are being used.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The initial payment includes $1.9 million directed to business travel, entertainment, as well as plant and equipment purchases associated with the department that supports President David Adeang.<\/p>\n

The largest portion of the funds, $19.8 million, will be used to pay off a loan that allowed the country to expand its national airline fleet to seven Boeing aircraft.<\/p>\n

Nauru will receive a total of $63 million in the first year of the deal, struck in September, which is estimated to cost $2.5 billion over 30 years.<\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

Greens senator David Shoebridge has questioned the use of the $30.5 million in initial funding. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n

The Australian government has repeatedly refused to publicly release the specifics of the third-country resettlement agreement for up to 324 non-citizens, but details of the initial payment were tabled by the Nauru government in late March.<\/p>\n

Under the ongoing arrangement, the $388 million trust is managed by a committee, with Australia appointing Ben Biddington while Nauru has appointed its Secretary of Finance Damon Adeang, the president’s son.<\/p>\n

First member of NZYQ cohort deported to Nauru<\/a><\/p>\n

Australia could end up paying the tiny island nation about $2.5 billion over three decades if the more than 350 former detainees are successfully resettled.<\/p>\n

Greens senator David Shoebridge questioned whether Mr Adeang had disclosed a potential conflict of interest, having been appointed an ex-officio director on the board of Nauru Air Corporation in October 2025.<\/p>\n

“Not at the time, no,” Mr Biddington said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

“Did he tell you one of the principles of the funds was to benefit the air cooperation?” Senator Shoebridge asked.<\/p>\n

Mr Biddington said he would need to review the minutes, with nine meetings of the committee taking place to date.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Tony<\/p>\n

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke travelled to Nauru last year, where he signed a deal with Nauru’s President David Adeang. (Facebook: The Government of the Republic of Nauru)<\/p>\n

Senator Shoebridge questioned the disbursement of funds, with Nauru’s March budget update revealing $1.68 million would be used for ministerial travel.<\/p>\n

Some was also directed to salaries across internal affairs, department of transport, border control, public health, the justice secretariat and front-line workers.<\/p>\n

Mr Biddington said money directed into the fund was “for the broad benefit and uplift of Nauru”.<\/p>\n

Department of Home Affairs officials revealed the Australian government payments will be audited annually, as well as reviewed every five years.<\/p>\n

However, an auditor has yet to be appointed.<\/p>\n

“The intention is to create a stream of funding,” the department’s head of immigration, Clare Sharp, told the Senate hearing.<\/p>\n

“Nauru can then use it to build its economic base and its future economic sustainability as a country.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nauru has withdrawn $30.5 million from a trust established with the Australian government under the NZYQ deportee deal,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,19454,19452,19453,19451,19450,17813],"class_list":["post-20275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-damon-adeang","tag-david-adeang","tag-david-shoebridge","tag-detainee-deal","tag-nzyq","tag-senate-estimates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}