As the news cycle rumbled back into action this week, it struck me that we have lost something in Australian politics. We have lost the art of communicating major political reform. The mining tax is still kicking around the Senate. Advertising to sell the carbon tax has made it back into the papers. Lots of stuff has happened, but much less has been completed. Why is that?
My view is that our politicians have been more focused on winning the news cycle than they have on bringing people along with them. They know how to spring announcements at the last minute so they get good coverage. They know how to bring out the dead in quiet times of the year, so that certain issues slip under the radar. Other tactics seem harder to explain – like dropping the carbon tax and proposing a mining tax on either side of a weekend back in 2010.
What we need are strong leaders who have the capacity to walk us through issues. That often requires time rather than just media intensity. Media technology may have changed with the 24 hour news cycle but people are still the same. They need to be presented problems in the right way and work through them bit by bit.
I had the privilege of being interviewed by Annabel Crabb on The Drum last night about this and Reframe. See our interview here at about 34.05 minutes. Annabel is fantastically energetic and really loves Reframe! I’ll leave her to promote it in her own words.
I also went along to the Stanton Library yesterday to give a talk to about 50 people about my story behind writing the book. It’s a fantastic library in North Sydney and I used to go to day care next door! The Constant Reader, who are the local bookshop, were there in full force as was my aunt who is one of the local councillors in North Sydney. The talk will be up on the Stanton website soon.
That was Day 1 of the Reframe road show. Today’s task – a longer conversation on Triple J with Tom Tilley around 5.30pm about the book!