The ritual of grabbing a coffee to meet someone and talk has become a ubiquitous act in most parts of Australian business and personal activity; and I think now part of the cultural fabric of how we meet, interact, and discuss important matters. This couldn’t be truer for Canberra’s halls of power at Aussies Cafe. This […]

The Albanese Government’s sudden announcement last Wednesday to place a  3-million-dollar cap on superannuation was driven by three priorities. Firstly, ending the damaging speculation about the breach of trust eroding the credibility of the Government. Secondly, plugging the hole in the massive budget deficit by raiding super under the smokescreen of fairness and equity. And […]

It seems many in the business, community and media have been growing more and more frustrated with Government decision making and commenting that it is getting worse. We have all heard or experienced slow decision processes, lack of clarity, inertia, unwillingness to engage, captains’ calls, questionable value vs public benefit, broken promises, etc. Today, I […]

The Queensland Parliament completed its first sitting week for 2023 and the chamber was unusually fiery. The Speaker took a strong hand to Question time, with frequent warnings and ejections. The Opposition have a spring in their step and yet the Government remains confident in its standing. The Government tried to start the week on […]

As the various winter sporting codes prepare to kick off for 2023, the players have been busy preparing for the season ahead. For many, this involves practising not only their physical feats, but also the verbal gymnastics they will perform at some stage during the season, by way of apology for some incident (on or […]

The Albanese Government’s honeymoon period in Parliament is over, as it wrestles with policy rejections on many fronts.  With the first two Parliamentary sitting weeks coming to an end, one would say the chaos is reminiscent of the dying days of the Morrison Government. It’s a perfect storm made up of rising interest rates, energy costs […]

SAS Group Director Hon. Bernie Ripoll has told the Australian Financial Review the time is right for further reform of the Financial Advice legislation he designed in 2012. The former Labor MP credited as the architect of the 2012 Future of Financial Advice legislation has endorsed the controversial review recommending repeal of key planks of the Rudd-era […]

Potential public relations disasters happen daily around the world; however, we hear nothing about most of them because the company likely has a strong crisis communications plan in place. For those that don’t, they end up making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Here are a few crisis communication crises from 2022 that could have […]

Happy New Year and best wishes for a successful 2023. I think it will be a hold-on-to-your-seats ride in 2023 with a packed political agenda. An early 2023 mover was Agriculture Minister Murray Watt who has the important job of landing the Australia/United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The FTA was agreed last year when […]