Tag Archives | Labor

Pokies rout a call for grassroots action

Troy Bramston, former staffer for Prime Minister Rudd and author of Looking of the Light on the Hill, makes some salient points on the disappointing poker machine reforms: That the ALP is unable to successfully advocate its policies or has the organisational capacity to campaign for them is causing concern in the party. In an [...]

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The ALP and The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (part 2)

The ALP and The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (part 2)

The “marketing bible” The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout sets out marketing laws that the ALP routinely violates. The result of breaking these rules has seen dire consequences for this party: massive slump in support, a collapse in membership, policy drift and an inability to “cut through” in the media. In [...]

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How the ALP violates the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (part1)

How the ALP violates the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (part1)

Al Ries and Jack Trout wrote the “marketing bible” The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing back in 1994, and it remains a marketing classic even today. These two renowned marketing consultants explained that successful marketing follows rules or laws that are violated at a marketer’s peril. For over a decade, the Australian Labor Party has [...]

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We are all Arbeiderpartiet members

Nick Martin, Labor’s National Assistant Secretary, has written a fine blog post commemorating those Norwegian Labor members who were murdered by an ultra-right wing gunman. I have copied the post below, and encourage you to visit the blog and leave a message of support for Arbeiderpartiet and its members. Right across the world people have [...]

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Memorable political visuals immediately tell a story and add context to headlines. Whitlam Lingiarri Sand Pour

Using social networks to communicate visually to voters

Tip: if you looked at the photo on this article before starting to read the text, then you’re like 90% of voters. If you’re not sure why this matters, you’re like most political commentators and pundits. There is a large amount of research about how voters (and readers in general) consume media. But, by and [...]

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Assessment of the “Clean Energy Future” policy

When the new carbon price policy was announced, I was fairly skeptical about it – especially given the failure of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. Media reporting suggested that there were serious deficiencies in the policy, as many or more as the CPRS. However, I’ve taken the time to acquaint myself more closely with the [...]

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From Progressive Australia: “Beyond preoccupations”

A friend of mine recently asked me “why socialism?” – why would progressive people on the left still call themselves socialists or argue that our goal should be socialism? It was with this in the back of my mind that I went to Progressive Australia, especially to listen to the international speakers from the UK [...]

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Everything old is new again

Everything old is new again

Back in March 2009, when Obama was riding high from his historic win, and Rudd was still basking in the post-Apology glow, I wrote: …the US Republicans are cannibalising themselves, that they are struggling to find a leader, and that they have no clear strategy for combating Obama and the Democrat machine. Only two years [...]

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Performance pay for teachers is a terrible idea and here’s why

On 7 February 2007, the then-Federal Education, Science and Training Minister, Julie Bishop, announced that ‘like other professions, teachers should be recognised and rewarded on merit.’ This policy announcement, made despite the Federal Government having no legal authority to set pay or conditions on public schools, was based on the pervasive private sector management practice [...]

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Mitch McConnell with John Boehner

Abbott’s Tactics Lifted Directly from Mitch McConnell

It now appears that Tony Abbott’s tactics in Parliament of consistent obstruction and negativity is directly lifted from the extreme Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell. While reading a profile on McConnell in The Atlantic Magazine, I came across a discussion of his tactics that seem remarkably familiar. But McConnell didn’t waste the crisis, either. He [...]

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Labor-pollingbooth

Eleven years in the suburbs

I’m inclined to agree with Peter Brent and Phil Quin when looking at the 2010 Victorian election: Brent: It looks like the Brumby government is gone and the Reasons are arriving. The Reasons follow the facts. Everybody has one. Transport, arrogance and so on. The usual ones and some others. There’ll be nagging and scolding [...]

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red

Why I’m voting Labor this Saturday

There are many reasons that I’m voting Labor this Saturday, but they ultimately boil down to the fact that Labor is the only party that will take real action on climate change, rather than spouting slogans (Greens Party) or denying there’s a problem (Liberal Party). Labor’s climate change policies could be better – I’ve committed [...]

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