Save SA Services

Launched in September 2020 and led by SA Unions, the Public Service Association and the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, Save SA Services is a broad union campaign to stop the privatisation of South Australian public services.

The government of Steven Marshall promised they wouldn’t be pursuing a privatisation agenda when they won office. However, their actions tell a very different story. 

The Adelaide Remand Centre was the first to go under Marshall, with management sold off to controversial security operators Serco despite the widespread public distrust for private prisons and fears that this is only the first step in a wholesale takeover of the sector. 

Then the government outsourced financial counselling services for vulnerable youth, called for tenders to take over Breast Screen SA and, more recently, handed the operations of the new Acute Mental Care Unit to an American company in a snub to the under-resourced public hospitals and community health teams already helping South Australians in crisis. 

A union and community campaign fought hard to stop the sell-off of Service SA and Motor Registry.

Despite 85 per cent of the community opposed, the government sold off the running of our trams and trains, putting safety, quality and affordability of public transport at risk.

And if that sounds unwise during a global recession and pandemic, they’ve even attempted to sell off SA Pathology: the organisation whose rapid COVID-19 testing regime has made SA the envy of our neighbours and an example to rest of the world. If that’s not a privatisation agenda, Steven, what is?

Selling off the services which South Australians built sends our money to overseas investors instead of keeping it here to support our communities, and means that our vital services are run for profit in times of emergency. We can’t afford Marshall’s market madness.

Don’t let our leaders continue to make the mistakes of the past: privatisation means lower services and higher costs. Let’s keep SA services in SA hands. It’s time to say no to the Marshall stealth sell offs, and Save SA Services.