When a crisis breaks in Sydney, it moves fast.
The Sydney media market is competitive, concentrated, and well-connected. A story that gains traction with one outlet spreads quickly. Social media compresses the timeline further. And the professional networks that connect boards, regulators, investors, and journalists in a city this size mean that word travels before the statement is ready.
A crisis communications consultant who understands that environment — and who is already across your business when it happens — makes a measurable difference to the outcome.
Sydney’s Senior Crisis Communications Consultant
Wilkinson Group is based in Sydney at Level 26, 1 Bligh St. We provide crisis communications and crisis PR counsel to CEOs, boards, and general counsel across
Sydney and Australia.
We are a small, senior firm. When a crisis breaks, Peter Wilkinson is the person who takes your call — not a junior who escalates to a senior, not an account manager who briefs the partner. The person you engage is the person who does the work.
What Crisis Communications Consultancy Involves
Crisis communications is often misunderstood as media management. It is much broader than that. When an organisation faces a crisis, the decisions made in the first hours affect the legal position, the regulatory relationship, the employee response, the customer response, and the long-term reputational outcome.
A crisis communications consultant’s role is to make sure those decisions are made with a clear understanding of all of those consequences — not just the immediate media question.
The Crises We Handle
- Data breaches and cyber incidents — disclosure obligations, regulator
communications, and public response - Media investigations and pile-ons — when a story is gaining momentum and the window to shape it is closing
- Royal commissions and regulatory inquiries — crisis PR counsel aligned with your legal strategy
- Product recalls and safety incidents
- Executive misconduct allegations — advising boards on disclosure, separation, and what comes next
- Sexual abuse and harassment matters — navigating sensitive disclosures with care and process integrity
- Industrial accidents — fires, explosions, fatalities — immediate response and
sustained recovery - Activist pressure and shareholder campaigns
- Extortion and threats — managing situations that cannot be made public
Why the Consultant Model Matters in a Crisis
In a crisis, continuity of counsel is not a preference. It is operationally critical. When the situation is developing hour by hour, the adviser who was in the room for the first decision needs to be in the room for the next one.
Wilkinson Group’s model means that Peter Wilkinson is available directly, is already across your business before the event, and can move immediately when the situation requires it.
Crisis Communications and Reputation Management
A crisis is a reputation event. How it is handled becomes part of your organisation’s permanent record. Wilkinson Group’s crisis communications counsel is always informed by the longer reputation picture.
Read more about our reputation management services: /reputation-management/
Learn more about Wilkinson Confidante: /wilkinson-confidante/
About Peter Wilkinson — Crisis Communications Consultant, Sydney
Peter Wilkinson is one of Sydney’s most experienced crisis communications consultants. As Managing Director of Wilkinson Group and Chairman of Wilkinson Butler, he has spent 24 years advising boards and senior executives through crises across Australia and internationally. Before moving into crisis PR, Peter spent 30 years as a journalist.
Peter is a member of Reputation Advisors International and a past Chair of the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom.