Felicity Reynolds Profile picture
Oct 22, 2020 9 tweets 3 min read Read on X
#Serco - a thread. Since finding out that Serco not only runs detention centres & prisons, but also call centres for Australian Govt services, such as Centrelink, NDIS and the ATO....I’ve done a bit more research..... 1/8 #auspol
They are absolutely everywhere. They are a UK company now in all parts of the world & they do stuff as diverse as healthcare, prisons, managing ballistic missiles to managing time itself (GMT). Serco seems proud to say ‘we don’t make the policy, we just manage the services’...2/8
This is fascinating for a few reasons. One is that the company CEO is Rupert Soames, a grandson of Winston Churchill. Yes, that same Churchill who successfully prosecuted WW2 against the evil of fascism. That same man.....3/8
....who criticised ‘the Nuremberg defence’. The defence some used after WW2 in answer to war crimes...’they were simply following orders’. It didn’t work then, nor should it. But how different is it to the explanation ‘we don’t make policy, we just manage the services’? 4/8
When we think about our own government policies in relation to UN conventions on asylum seekers, it seems convenient to have a corporation that ‘just runs services’ running those services. Just following orders....5/8
It also seems convenient to have them running social & civil infrastructure. They can lay off ‘casual’ staff when govt changes policy or introduces new obligations. This not only gets stuff done quickly, it also erodes....6/8
...our employment conditions & rights, keeps jobs insecure. This then spins off into housing insecurity, anxiety etc. The contracting out of civil society to any entity that ‘just runs stuff’ reduces us all. This is our basic civil infrastructure that should be conscious....7/8
....& it shouldn’t be sold to a foreign entity. But we need to change too. We must stop wanting things done instantly. It’s this expectation (among others) driving govts to contracts. A contract is signed & someone else has to do it quickly. Our govts can say, we did that. ✅ 8/8
Since posting this thread, this excellent & much more comprehensive article about Serco from The Guardian and written by @FNFlanagan was brought to my attention. Do read it. amp.theguardian.com/business/2020/…

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More from @FlickReynolds

Dec 1, 2022
1/15 A brief history of men being found not guilty of allegedly raping women BECAUSE….
….the woman had ‘consented’, 1867. 2/15
….the woman was drunk, 1885. 3/15
Read 15 tweets
Jan 25, 2021
#InvasionDay - a thread about Australia Day
1/8 For those who still think British ‘colonisation’ of Australia wasn’t that bad & celebrating the arrival of the First Fleet on 26 January 1788 is fine...here is an article from the Coburg Leader of 1893....
2/8 This is a real newspaper article from 128 years ago which is describing in graphic & appalling detail.....genocide. I apologise if this is upsetting reading (because it certainly is), but it’s really clear that.......
3/8....too many Australians of European heritage are completely ignorant about what really happened. How their & my own forebears took this land and systematically displaced & destroyed First Nations people. Read this & know this. Face this.
Read 12 tweets
Oct 21, 2020
Upon reflection, I’m now wondering when Serco took over #Centrelink call centre operations? Based on a personal anecdote.....a thread. 1/6
My late parents were both age pensioners, worked hard their entire lives. Sadly my mother died about 10 months before my dad died. But I had two quite different experiences with Centrelink. I phoned them.....2/6
about a week after Mum died to notify them of her death (my Dad had dementia & couldn’t). I was so sad & I recall having a lovely conversation with the call centre staff member. She expressed her sympathy on our loss & explained......3/6
Read 7 tweets

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