In previous years, an announcement that a private-run facility would be taken over by the state on 1 April would have been regarded as an April Fool’s gag – albeit quite a cruel one given the lasting damage privatisation has done to our society.

But things are looking up, and the handover of the keys to Junee Correctional Centre on 1 April 2025 is no joke. In fact, it is a template for the recovery of NSW assets to government control and the end of the failed experiment that was privatisation. All thanks to campaigning by our union.

The PSA CPSU NSW has campaigned against the commercial operation of Junee since it opened, just as it has with all private gaols. Therefore, our union went headlong into the 2023 state election determined to end decades of government-sanctioned sell-offs. While both sides of politics were guilty, the unawesome foursome of Barry O’Farrell, Mike Baird, Gladys Berejiklian and Dominic Perrottet proved the most zealous at flogging off what the people of NSW had built.

In 12 years, the Liberal National State Government sold off billions of dollars in state assets. Many of these, such as the world’s most comprehensively tolled road system and our land title service, continue to allow companies to regularly dip into the pockets of people in this state.

The decision by the Government in 2024 to hand over control of Junee Correctional Centre is a direct result of our 2023 decision to campaign against the Coalition parties. The PSA CPSU NSW’s Privatisation Hurts Everyone campaign alerted the voters to the damage done by selling off the state’s silver.

It is little wonder that, on election night, the new premier Chris Minns said privatisation in NSW was over.

Junee being handed to the control of Corrective Services NSW is a welcome development, as the prison has never been in public hands since it was constructed in 1993.
The State Government taking over a facility that was run by the private sector since its inception shows privatisation truly is a thing of the past in NSW.

In addition, there will be more staff, better paid staff and a greater emphasis on rehabilitating inmates, rather than cut-price incarceration at a cost designed to satisfy shareholders.

The PSA CPSU NSW is confident the Junee move can be replicated throughout the state. The Government has committed to the return of Parklea Prison, which was once a state-run facility, to the people of NSW.

It would be fitting for Mr Minns to preside over this, given that it was his party that sold it off in the first place.

Hopefully these prisons are not the only facilities in NSW that will be returned to public control.

We here would like to see a government-run safety net for people with disability, an end to the endless construction of toll roads and full funding of TAFE.

The handover of Junee Correctional Centre is not just a welcome move for the town, it is a template for a better NSW.

We look forward to seeing similar returns in the future.