Wilson Security

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Wilson Security is an Australian private security company. It was started in 2000 in Melbourne. In 2014 it acquired the security contracts of ISS A/S Security in Australia and First Security Business in New Zealand. [1] Wilson Security is a part of the Wilson Group which is owned by Sun Hung Kai Properties, the corporation of the Hong Kong–based Kwok family, one of the richest families in Asia, currently run by Raymond Kwok (previously also run by Thomas Kwok until he resigned after being found guilty of corruption). [2] [3]

Contents

In 2015 it was a subcontractor of Broadspectrum at Australian offshore detention facilities (the others being managed by Serco at the time). At the time, Wilson had been working on Nauru since late 2012, and on Manus Island since February 2014. [4]

Controversies

In August 2015, two former Wilson Security guards spoke out against the company in an interview for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's The 7.30 Report . They, among others, accused Wilson Security and Broadspectrum/Transfield of providing misleading information to the Australian Parliament, and covering up malpractice at the Nauru Centre. They also claimed that a spying operation against Senator Sarah Hanson-Young which was first revealed in June 2015, was more extensive than Wilson Security or Broadspectrum/Transfield had admitted. [5]

In March 2017, two Australian employees of Wilson Security were deported to Australia by the Government of Nauru, for unspecified reasons. [6]

In February 2018, the National Gallery of Victoria dropped its contract with Wilson Security due to protests by artists over Wilson Security's role on Manus and Nauru. [7]

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References

  1. ISS Divests Commercial Security Business to Wilson Security 8 January, 2014 Archived 5 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine ISS Australia Retrieved 14 October 2015
  2. "Wilson Group". Archived from the original on 12 November 2019. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  3. "Australian company Wilson linked to Hong Kong corruption scandal". ABC News. 4 April 2016.
  4. Wilson Security Nauru and Manus Island Fact Sheet Archived 8 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 24 October 2015
  5. Main, Lisa (14 August 2015). "Former Nauru guards speak out against Wilson Security over spying on Sarah Hanson-Young, cover-ups and abuse". ABC News . Archived from the original on 26 July 2016. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  6. Koziol, Michael; Hunter, Fergus; Flitton, Daniel (21 March 2017). "Two Australians employed by Wilson Security to be deported by Nauru police". The Sydney Morning Herald . Archived from the original on 21 April 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  7. Harmon, Steph (28 February 2018). "National Gallery of Victoria dumps Wilson Security over offshore detention". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 30 June 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.