The Department of Home Affairs sits at the intersection of national security, immigration enforcement, and border protection — and its procurement record reflects exactly that. With over $30.4 billion committed across 9,474 contracts in its all-time history, this is an agency where billion-dollar deals are routine and the stakes behind each contract are high. View full profile
A Spending Spike That Demands Attention
The year-on-year spending data tells a striking story. After relatively stable annual outlays of around $1.3–1.5 billion in FY23 and FY24, the department's contracted spend surged dramatically:
- FY23: $1.3B across 1,455 contracts
- FY24: $1.5B across 1,473 contracts
- FY25: $9.9B across 1,574 contracts
- FY26: $5.6B across 1,150 contracts
- FY27 (to date): $915.8M across 282 contracts
The leap to $9.9 billion in FY25 is extraordinary by any measure — more than six times the FY24 level — and reflects the consolidation of several mega-contracts that fundamentally reshape the agency's supplier landscape. FY26 remained elevated at $5.6 billion, suggesting these large-scale arrangements are multi-year in nature rather than one-off procurement events. With $915.8 million already committed in the first half of FY27, the department remains one of the highest-spending civilian agencies in the Commonwealth.
The Contracts Driving the Numbers
Three contract categories dominate the department's largest commitments, and they paint a clear picture of operational priorities: aerial surveillance, immigration detention, and property management.
Aerial Surveillance
The single largest contract in the department's disclosed portfolio belongs to METREA AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, awarded CN4239669 valued at $4.3 billion for Aerial Surveillance Services. This contract — covering offshore maritime patrol and surveillance activity — represents a significant long-term investment in Australia's border monitoring capability. That a single contract for aerial surveillance exceeds the department's entire annual spend from just two years prior underscores how concentrated procurement has become in this space.
Immigration Detention Facilities
SECURE JOURNEYS PTY LTD holds two contracts — CN4111722 and CN4111897 — each valued at $2.3 billion, both for the Provision of Facilities and Detainee Services. Combined, these two contracts account for $4.7 billion in total spend with a single supplier, making Secure Journeys the department's largest supplier by total value. The dual-contract structure likely reflects separate facility or service streams within the broader immigration detention network.
Property and Facilities Management
CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD PTY LTD manages an expansive property portfolio for the department under 11 contracts totalling $2.1 billion, including CN4169639 — a $1.0 billion property management services contract. Given the department's extensive physical infrastructure footprint across immigration processing centres, detention facilities, and office networks, the scale of this engagement is understandable.
Patrol Vessels
AUSTAL SHIPS PTY LTD rounds out the top tier with CN3289137, a $1.0 billion contract for the Provision of Custom Patrol Vessels — a long-standing element of Australia's maritime border enforcement capability.
Supplier Concentration at Scale
The top supplier list is notable for both its concentration and its diversity of industry sector:
- SECURE JOURNEYS PTY LTD — $4.7B across 2 contracts (detention services)
- METREA AUSTRALIA PTY LTD — $4.3B across 1 contract (aerial surveillance)
- CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD PTY LTD — $2.1B across 11 contracts (property management)
- AUSTAL SHIPS PTY LTD — $1.6B across 2 contracts (patrol vessels)
- TECHNICAL AND FURTHER EDUCATION COMMISSION — $1.0B across 16 contracts
- HEALTHCARE AUSTRALIA PTY LTD — $881.3M across 2 contracts
- MELBOURNE POLYTECHNIC — $711.1M across 20 contracts
The presence of TAFE NSW (Technical and Further Education Commission) and Melbourne Polytechnic in the top seven — with a combined spend exceeding $1.7 billion — points to substantial investment in settlement services, English language training, and vocational education for migrants and humanitarian entrants. This is a less-visible but substantial dimension of the department's work that the raw spending figures help surface.
Healthcare Australia's $881.3 million across just two contracts similarly signals the scale of healthcare provisioning required across detention and immigration processing settings.
What This Tells Suppliers and Analysts
For suppliers tracking government opportunity, several insights emerge from this data:
- Mega-contracts dominate. The top five contracts alone represent over $11 billion in value. This is not an agency that splits spend into small parcels — capability at scale is the price of entry for the largest opportunities.
- Long-term arrangements are the norm. Contracts of $1 billion or more imply multi-year terms, meaning incumbent suppliers hold significant positional advantage. Competitors need to plan well ahead of any recompete cycle.
- Non-obvious spend categories matter. Education, training, and healthcare collectively represent billions in contracted spend — categories that might not be the first association with a border security agency but are essential to its humanitarian and settlement functions.
- FY27 is already active. With $915.8 million committed across 282 contracts in the first half of FY27, there is ongoing procurement activity across what is likely a broad range of categories beyond the headline mega-deals.
The Department of Home Affairs represents one of the most consequential and complex procurement environments in the Australian federal government. Understanding its spending patterns — who it buys from, at what scale, and in which categories — is essential context for any supplier or analyst working in the government market.