I am Alex White, a progressive campaign strategist, writer, social marketer and policy activist.
In 2010, I welcomed Gillard’s ascendancy to the Labor leadership but expressed my concern over the circumstances of how she rose to be Prime Minister. Back then, I wrote: The fact that the parliamentary leadership of the Labor Party is determined by the vote of only Members of Parliament is now shown to be open [...]
When I got up this morning, instead of cartoons on Channel Nine, there was live coverage of Julia Gillard’s trip to the Governor General’s resident at Yarralumla. The election was being called. All this week, I’ve heard “insiders” say it would be called today, so I’m sure they’ll be gratified that they’ve been proven right. [...]
There’s a bit of discussion around the traps to do with dog whistling. The idea is that Tony Abbott is dog whistling to the electorate on the issue of refugees by talking about “being tough on boat people” (one of his 12 point plan is “Enforce strict border security and control”). Similarly, Abbott’s ad showing [...]
Gillard makes history as Australia’s first woman prime-minister. Today marks an important historical milestone for Australian politics and civil society. Julia Gillard is without a doubt Labor’s best political operative and most effective communicator. She has shown she can cut through. Ultimately, this is what sealed Kevin Rudd’s fate. Rudd was only able to communicate [...]
You know when your remarks are reported by a major overseas news agency as “editor’s pick” that you’re on a winner. Tony Abbott has been getting great press recent after he told Kerry O’Brien from the 7:30 Report that voters they should only believe his “carefully prepared scripted remarks” and not his off-the-cuff comments. Anthony [...]