A confidential submission to the Senate inquiry into the detention centre on Nauru has revealed Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young was given the nickname 'The Raven' by guards on the island.
The confidential submission by a worker for Wilson Security, which is contracted to provide security at the centre, claims that when senator Hanson-Young visited the island to observe the conditions she was under covert surveillance.
"When Senator Sarah Hanson-Young visited Nauru, Wilson Security organised a team from ERT [emergency response team] to spy on her while she was on Nauru. This included following her around the island while she was outside of the OPCs [offshore processing centres] and setting up an observation post to watch her room at the Menen hotel," the submission says.
The submission also claims workers were preparing to "take cunts down" as unrest on the island threatened to boil over.
"I have seen a video from a camera worn by a Wilson security guard on 19 JULY 2013. The recording was before the riot started and was of three Wilson employees (including the employee wearing the camera) talking to each other at the recreation centre in OPC01," it says.
"The male Wilson employee wearing the camera states if something happens 'we go Charlie 2 and take cunts down', soon after one of the other Wilson employees states 'If a cop tells you what to do you can do it. I don't understand Nauruan so I'm just gonna say he told me to do everything...' I'm pretty sure he said s like that. I'm fairly confident he gave me that direction'.
"From seeing this video it was obvious to me that these Wilson guards were planning to use unreasonable force and assault the asylum seekers even before the riot started."
The submission also includes allegations of abuse, corruption and discrimination by Wilson Security guards on the island.
"I strongly recommend the centre is shut down, the remaining asylum seekers be processed onshore and all the refugees that were released into the Nauruan community be brought to Australia," the submission states.
The Senator isn't taking the revelations lying down, after changing her Twitter name to 'The Raven', she lashed out at Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
"Allegations that I was spied on while conducting an investigation and an inspection of the conditions inside the Nauru detention centre are extremely concerning, she said at a press conference this morning.
"When I was there on the island, I must say there was a sense that I was being watched. I didn't really know what was going on at the time. I just had a sense that at some times that my car was being followed and that at other times conversations that I was having with people on the island were being monitored."
This morning Mr Abbott said Ms Hanson-Young was being "looked after" on the island, rather than spied upon. This morning the Senator rejected the characterisation.
"If he doesn't understand that women don't like to be watched, my gosh, and it is just creepy, frankly. It is creepy," she said.
"Women don't like to be watched. The fact that the Prime Minister, the Minister for women, doesn't seem to understand that beggars belief. I'd like to ask the prime minister how he would feel if his wife was being watched. How he would feel if his daughters were being watched going about their work."
"It is simply not OK."