NIGERIA, Nov. 26 -- It began with the colourful confessions of former Australian Army rifleman Oisin Donohoe. In a report published in The Age on November 8, Donohoe made salty allegations that the private security intended for overseeing "unlawful noncitizens" transferred from Australia to Nauru would be staffed by members of the Finks outlaw motorcycle gang. "It was pretty confronting to know that an outlaw motorcycle group was running a company that had got a government contract," he stated with consternation. It was "mind-boggling" that such figures could participate in a "contract to oversee quite a significant national security item on the agenda."

This was certainly taking the privatisation of security, a policy already revolting...