Today's decision by the Malinauskas Government to rehire international prison company Serco to run the Adelaide Remand Centre (ARC) is a betrayal of every volunteer who handed out to re-elect them only a month ago, says the Public Service Association of South Australia.
The Labor Party has always opposed the privatisation of precious public services, so the Malinauskas Government's decision today to keep the ARC in private hands after it was privatised by the Marshall Liberal Government in 2019 flies in the face of everything the party stands for.
The contract expires in August and the Malinauskas Government was expected to return the prison to the public sector.
Instead they have claimed contractual arrangements made it too costly.
These claims are bullshit, says PSA General Secretary Charlotte Watson, the union which covers correctional officers.
"We're calling bullshit on this, we're got the contract and there is no monetary penalty for finishing as agreed after seven years, the Minister claims there are "serious challenges" in ending the contract and that taxpayers would have have stump up alot of money to Serco, we think that's bullshit," said Ms Watson.
"The fact this decision was put out on a Friday arvo via press release shows Malinauskas just doesn't want to own up to it, in politics it's called 'taking out the garbage' where you sneakily announce something when everyone is knocking off and going to the pub.
"We'd expect a decision like this from a Liberal Government, but from a Labor Government with a commanding majority it's nothing short of a betrayal of their core values, card carrying labor members in this state will be devastated by this gutlessness.
"This decision is the antithesis of Labor values, and it shows how the Malinauskas government is good at winning elections, but has no core values, and no progressive agenda.
"This is virtually the first decision of this freshly minted Malinauskas government, and they should hang their heads in shame."
This week the McKell Institute delivered a scathing assessment of the privatisation of the Adelaide Remand Centre (ARC), concluding the experiment has failed on cost, safety, staffing, and accountability grounds.
