11 May 2026
The SA Greens have slammed a decision by the State Labor Government to renew the contract with Serco to run the Adelaide Remand Centre just days after a report found that privatisation of the facility had been a failure.
“This is an absurd decision from the Labor Government. Just last week, a report commissioned by The McKell Institute found that the centre had been plagued by ‘systemic problems… undermining staff safety and wellbeing.’ The Remand Centre has rocked by chaos and controversy of the last few years, yet instead of returning it to public hands, Labor have just rewarded Serco with an extension of their contract for another 5 years,” said SA Greens Leader Robert Simms MLC.
“The Greens welcomed Labor reversing privatisation of the trains. They should be taking the same approach with our state’s prisons. Prisons play a vital role in our criminal justice system. They should be appropriately resourced and run by Government to ensure maximum transparency and accountability.”
“It is not enough for the Government to hide behind the smoke-screen of commercial in confidence here. It needs to come clean with the people of South Australia about the full costs of its arrangement with Serco. How much would it have cost to simply not renew the contract?”
“There’s no question that the Liberals’ privatisation has been a disaster for SA. But after 4 years in Government, it’s not good enough for Labor to keep simply blaming the previous administration. They need to clean up the mess and take back control of this facility.”