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Wilkinson Confidante: Retained Reputation Counsel for Australian Leaders

Wilkinson Confidante is Wilkinson Group’s retained advisory service. It puts a senior adviser on call before a reputational event happens.

It brings under one umbrella crisis support, reputation management and deep risk awareness that, combined, are designed to build trust.

Most organisations only call a reputation management or crisis communications consultant once something has already gone wrong. Confidante is built for the client who wants that counsel already in place: continuous monitoring, tested crisis protocols and direct access to Wilkinson Group Managing Director Peter Wilkinson, on retainer, month after month.

Peter brings 24 years of crisis and reputation management experience to every retainer, alongside a senior team with backgrounds in investigative journalism, financial services, political communications and regulatory affairs.

Urgent Crisis Support or Ongoing Counsel?

You don’t need a retainer to call Wilkinson Group in a crisis. Peter Wilkinson takes urgent calls any hour, and engagements typically start within hours of the first call.

The difference is the starting point. A single-incident response starts from zero on the worst day. A retainer starts with the monitoring live, the protocols tested, and Peter already across your business.

In a crisis now? Go to crisis communications. Planning ahead? Read on.

What a Confidante Retainer Actually Includes

A retainer is not three distinct services bundled together. It’s one relationship, and each part of it sits with the senior adviser who actually does that work, the same person every time, not whoever is rostered on that week.

Peter Wilkinson applies the retainer personally

Peter Wilkinson applies the Confidante retainer personally. He brings 30 years as a journalist, including ABC’s 7.30, Four Corners and Nine’s 60 Minutes, and 24 years advising Australian boards and CEOs through crisis and reputation management.

That experience sits behind Wilkinson Group’s truth, transparency and traceability framework. Peter is a member of Reputation Advisors International and past Chair of the Global Communications Alliance.

Under his direct oversight, Confidante monitors stakeholder sentiment continuously, catching shifts in perception before they become reputational events. Peter is on call personally, by phone and text, not handed off to an account team.

Peter Wilkinson, Managing Director of Wilkinson Group, Sydney

Crisis preparedness, built before the story breaks

Crisis preparedness under Confidante means three things: tested response protocols, a pre-drafted holding-statement library, and simulated crisis exercises. All three are built before an issue reaches the media, not while it is breaking.

Mark Abernethy shapes that discipline. He is a journalist, speechwriter and political adviser who has written for The Bulletin and the Australian Financial Review, and worked inside the political process as an adviser and lobbyist.

His experience spans financial services, defence, infrastructure, property and resources. In those sectors, a mishandled first statement carries regulatory consequences as well as reputational ones.

Mark brings a writer’s instinct and a political adviser’s judgment to every protocol he tests. The holding statement is ready before the phone rings, not drafted while it is ringing.

Spokespeople who need interview practice before that day can book executive media training with Peter.

Mark Abernethy, communications consultant and journalist at Wilkinson Group

Monitoring is only useful once it is interpreted

Confidante is continuous, AI-powered monitoring across media, social, regulatory and broadcast channels, interpreted by senior counsel rather than left as a raw dashboard. It is the standing version of Wilkinson Group’s issues management work.

That interpretation comes from Vessa Playfair. She spent 16 years as Head of Corporate Affairs and Communications for a Big Four professional services firm, after ten years running her own financial PR firm through mergers, acquisitions and IPOs.

She has been the trusted adviser to CEOs and chairs across 32 mergers and has guided organisations through high-profile insolvencies.

That work depends on knowing which signal in a crowded market actually moves a stakeholder’s confidence, not just which one is loudest.

Mark Abernethy, communications consultant and journalist at Wilkinson Group

The judgment to know which signal matters

Any organisation can buy a media-monitoring subscription. What Confidante adds is the judgment to know which signal, among hundreds, is worth a phone call.

That judgment comes from Duncan McNab, a former NSW Police Force detective who investigated anti-corruption and fraud before becoming an award-winning investigative journalist, documentary maker and the author of 13 books.

He has served as director of communications to NSW Government ministers and managed public affairs for major regulatory bodies. That gives him a working knowledge of how a regulator actually moves once a matter is referred, not just how it looks from outside.

Policing, journalism and government affairs, held by one person, is an unusual combination. It separates an issue that will define an organisation from one that disappears by Friday.

Duncan McNab, regulatory and inquiry communications adviser at Wilkinson Group

Every retainer also includes ongoing CEO and executive reputation counsel, applied by Peter directly rather than sold as a separate line item, drawing on the same 24 years of boardroom-level experience behind the rest of the retainer. See reputation management for the full standalone CEO and executive reputation service.

Why a Standing Adviser Matters Now

Australian trust is rising on paper, but it is splitting underneath. In the 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer, trust in Australia’s key institutions rose from 49 to 54, AICD [1]. Boards are still expected to act as trust brokers.

Edelman Australia’s chief executive, Tom Robinson, put the board lesson plainly: “Trust erosion rarely begins with scandal.” The full breakdown is on our reputation management page.

Senior counsel already in place, before the moment that requires it

Every retainer is scoped individually, on a first call with Peter.

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The Trust Environment

Organisations navigating this environment well share one characteristic: a trusted adviser already in place before an event arrives.

The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer (34,000 respondents, 28 markets) records a world retreating into an insular trust mindset. Only 32% of respondents globally believe the next generation will be better off. Boards and CEOs are expected to act as trust brokers. Most are failing.

2026 Edelman Trust Barometer

The Reuters Institute Digital News Report, June ’26: “Within the news ecosystem, an apparent paradox emerges between behaviour and attitudes. There is continued change in news consumption in favour of social media, video networks and, more recently, AI. At the same time, concerns about trust in news, about misinformation, and about the wider impact of these platforms are all increasing.”

Reuters Institue

Roy Morgan data confirms Australia is in structural distrust: consumer confidence has remained below the neutral mark for over three consecutive years – the longest such period this century.

Roy Morgan

The OECD Framework identifies that public trust is fostered when institutions demonstrate competence, values-based decision-making, and good governance. Key drivers include reliability, responsiveness, fairness, integrity, and openness. Other  factors include the perceived capacity to address complex global challenges and citizens’ sense of participation in decision-making. Importantly, the OECD’s Australia-specific analysis confirms these dynamics hold domestically.

OECD

Frequently Asked Questions

A Wilkinson Confidante retainer covers three ongoing disciplines: reputation counsel built on truth, transparency and traceability; tested crisis preparedness including simulation and a holding-statement library; and continuous, AI-powered issues monitoring interpreted by senior counsel. Every retainer is applied personally by Peter Wilkinson, not handed to junior staff.

A single-incident response is built from a standing start, on the day something goes wrong. On a retainer, the monitoring is already live, the protocols are already tested, and Peter already knows your organisation, so the response starts faster and holds up better under scrutiny.

Preparation, principally, but not exclusively. If an issue already being monitored under the retainer escalates, Peter moves straight into active crisis communications as the same adviser on the file, not a handover to someone new.

Peter Wilkinson takes the call and works from the holding statements and protocols already prepared. Within the first hour, he aligns with your lawyers on the first statement. The rest of the day runs on a plan built months earlier, not one drafted on the day.

A retainer typically opens with a stakeholder-perception audit and a review of any existing crisis protocols, then moves to a holding-statement library and a first simulation exercise. Continuous monitoring and on-call access to Peter start from day one.

Every retainer is scoped individually, on a first call with Peter, based on the organisation's size and risk profile, not from a fixed package. Peter confirms scope and cost directly on that first call.

Yes. Every retainer includes ongoing protection of a leader's personal standing alongside the organisation's, applied by Peter directly. See reputation management for the full standalone CEO and executive reputation service.

Get in touch…

Ready to talk? Call Peter directly, no gatekeepers.

Call Peter directly

+61.414.383.433

Contact Email

[email protected]

Office Hours

Monday to Saturday, 8am to 6pm, Sydney time. Crisis calls: any hour.

Address

Level 26/1 Bligh St, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia

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