On what is likely to be the last business day before the federal election is called and the caretaker period begins, the Department of Home Affairs has kicked off the next stage of the tender process for the controversial privatisation of the visa processing system.
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But while the process has continued, it has set the closing date for June 28 - meaning it all could be scuttled by an incoming government.
In the hours before the documents were uploaded, Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo has written to Labor's immigration spokesman, emphasising the department's provisions in the tender documents regarding the caretaker period and alerting bidders that an incoming government may not continue with the process.
Earlier this year Mr Neumann had taken the unusual step of writing to Mr Pezzullo asking that the tender process be put on ice until after the election, as the party stridently opposes the privatisation plan.
The multimillion-dollar plan has just two bidders. One is called Australia Visa Processing Consortium and is led by Scott Briggs, who has connections to both Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Immigration Minister David Coleman. They have recused themselves from the process, which includes a second bid from Accenture and Australia Post in a joint venture.
In the letter to Mr Neumann, Mr Pezzullo said the process was continuing as had been previously set out.
"The department has chosen to include specific provisions in the RFT documents addressing the impact of the caretaker period and caretaker guidelines," Mr Pezzullo said.
"The RFT phase-two process does not bind an incoming government including because the decision to proceed is explicitly subject to further departmental and Australian government decision making after RFT phase two."
According to the first phase of documents released in December last year, phase-two documentation was set to be released by the end of March "subject to decision making and the outcome of Phase One".
The main public sector union has described the timing of the document release, which falls both after the end of a sitting week and after Home Affairs bosses appeared at Senate estimates on Thursday, as "sneaky".
"The government is doing everything it possibly can to make sure the public doesn’t find out about their plans, and that the parliament isn’t able to properly scrutinise them," Community and Public Sector Union assistant national secretary Michael Tull said.
"Putting out the second phase of this process on a Friday afternoon, immediately after Home Affairs has appeared before estimates and possibly hours before a federal election is called, isn’t just sneaky. It shows the government is only interested in doing backroom deals that benefit their mates in the private sector, and has nothing but contempt for voters."
Home Affairs said "the request for tender is up on the website as part of our procurement process".
