The high-powered lobbyists used by Australia's private prison companies

The multinationals operating several prisons in Australia engage some of the most influential lobbying firms in the country.

The four multinationals tasked with running several prisons in Australia engage the services of some of the highest-powered and most influential lobbying firms in the country, giving them close access to criminal justice policy decision making.

The lobbying by private prison companies around the world has been scrutinised and criticised, with evidence particularly in the US that these firms with a vested interest in incarceration have lobbied in favour of tough-on-crime policies.

Many of the same companies also operate prisons in Australia, but their lobbying efforts and the companies they employ to do this has received less attention.

While there is a lack of transparency around the activities of lobbying firms and their meetings with Australian politicians, state and territory lobbying registers reveal that private prison operators in Australia are clients of significant lobbying firms in the states they have contracts to run prisons.

These firms have close ties to the state governments and are often led by former politicians or political advisers.

There are four companies which operate prisons in Australia: Serco, G4S, GEO Group and MTC-Broadspectrum. All of these companies operate extensively around the world, where they also engage lobbyists and attempt to influence policy in their favour.

Serco

Serco runs Australia’s two largest prisons: Acacia Prison in Western Australia and the newly opened Clarence Correctional Centre in New South Wales. The UK outsourcing multinational also operates the Adelaide Remand Centre in South Australia.

Serco earns hundreds of millions of dollars each year to run these prisons, and in each state where the company runs a prison, the company is listed as a client of at least one highly influential lobbying firm.

New South Wales handed Serco a $2.6 billion, 20-year contract in 2017 to manage the new Clarence Correctional Centre, which will be the largest prison in Australia.

In NSW Serco is a client of GRA Cosway, a lobbying firm chaired by former Liberal Senator for NSW and Minister for Communications Helen Coonan.

Serco is also a client of GRA Cosway in South Australia, where it operates the Adelaide Remand Centre.

In Western Australia, where Serco manages the Acacia prison on a contract worth $324 million from 2016 to 2021, the company engages GRA Partners, which touts itself as WA’s “most trusted government relations and corporate and financial communications counsel”.

GRA Partner’s managing partner is Jason Marocchi, a former senior media advisor for several state Liberal leaders in WA and communications lead for the WA Liberal Party.

The lobbying company is also chaired by former WA Deputy Premier and Treasurer Eric Ripper.

Serco does not run any prisons in Victoria, but the company has signalled its interest in winning a contract to operate health services in public prisons in the state, which will imminently go out for tender.

In Victoria, Serco is a client of Barton Deakin, a lobbying firm founded by former leader of the NSW Opposition and senior minister Peter Collins and chaired by former deputy federal director of the Liberal Party Grahame Morris, who was also former Prime Minister John Howard’s chief of staff.

At the Commonwealth level, Serco also engages four different lobbying firms: Cornerstone, 1901 Consulting, GRA Cosway and GRA Partners. In Queensland, the firm has engaged CT Corporate Advisory.

Serco also attempts to influence policy through its think tank, The Serco Institute. This institute has previously made a submission to the NSW government espousing the benefits of private prisons, saying they bring “significant financial savings”.

G4S

Fellow British multinational G4S runs two prisons in Australia, and is also a client of a number of major lobbying players.

In Victoria, where G4S runs the Port Phillip prison on a $1.8 billion contract, the company enlists the lobbying services of DPG Advisory Solutions and Michelson Alexander Pty Ltd, with both engaged in July 2021.

DPG is led by David Gazard, a former senior media advisor for John Howard and a senior political advisor to former Treasurer Peter Costello, and Scott Briggs, the deputy director of the NSW Liberal Party from 2005 to 2007.

Michelson Alexander was founded by Steve Michelson, a former advisor to ex-Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.

In South Australia, where the company operates the Mount Gambier prison, G4S was a client of Capetal Advisory from 2018 to 2021. The lobbying company is led by Brad Green, a former senior advisor to former SA Premier Jay Weatherill.

GEO Group

GEO Group is an American real estate investment trust which invests in private prisons and is contracted to operate three prisons in Australia.

GEO Group is a client of Primary Communication Partners in NSW, founded by NSW’s longest serving state government chief of staff Christopher Hall, who was also government relations director at the NSW Minerals Council.

In that state, GEO operates the Junee Correctional Centre on a contract worth about $51 million annually.

In Victoria, the multinational engages Clifton Stakeholder Services, which was founded by former senior private secretary to Foreign Minister Andrew Peacock, John Ridley. Clifton Stakeholder Services’ general manager is Scott Pearce, who has previously worked for former Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy.

GEO runs the Fulham Correctional Centre and the Ravenhall Correctional Centre in Victoria, raking in about $3 billion over the next two decades on these contracts.

Broadspectrum, which runs the Parklea prison with MTC, has previously engaged the services of three significant lobbying firms in NSW: Nexus, Premier State Consulting and Premier National.

While the activities of these lobbying firms, and even their meetings with politicians, is murky territory in Australia, private prison operators in the US - some which also operate in Australia - have been found to lobby in favour of tougher incarceration policies.

Companies including CCA Group and GEO Group, which also operates and lobbies in Australia, were supportive of California’s three strikes law and other “war on drugs” policies.

GEO Group was also found to have ratcheted up its lobbying activities in the US under the Trump Presidency spending $US120,000 in one quarter in 2019 on a high-powered firm to campaign for “public-private partnerships in correctional services”.