draft

*

The herd mentality was back, if it had ever left; gassap gassai, restless, the boy said, and everything moved away in rivers, across time, through the channels that pummelled through walls, the flash of a thigh, a sunny smile, a gesture, a path not taken. It was never going to be the same. There were a hundred ways of viewing these things. There were crises that never made the point, misshapen faces, and he knew that a destiny awaited him he did not want to face. There were flowers in the garden, faces misaligned, communist bodies marching in concord, trimmed hedges, beds of orchids, hanging trees, crows perched up high, watching every move, harbingers, and even while he sat a turtle crawled across the grass and tried to nuzzle into him. You're not well, you're dizzy, someone said, and he knew it to be true. They couldn't much match what was happening to him. All across time, things were fleeing, bright spots, pain etched out of wilderness, thighs flitting through the grass, voices calling, an overwhelming sadness so out of line with the rock and roll lifestyle. He went to see Mark in the locked ward, but he had already left, despite having been strapped down only a few days before, and was drinking again, by all reports. Brandy Alexanders, rock and roll drinking, he had proudly declared.

I'm having the time of my life, Mark had declared, but Tom, who had so looked up to him, so relied on him, was barely amused. No one else around him is having a good time, he mused. He's already been expelled from one apartment block. The city sprawled heavenward; voices of discontent, and their shattered Sabbaths, their feeble attempts at spirituality, reached back through time and denied their current forms. If only there had been an answer. If only things hadn't taken such a ruinous course. He could feel the bells ringing. The walls of white patched with concrete, hiding the dreaming, slumbering forms of the Chinese, the only ones who felt secure, after a lifetime of denial. The soldiers were back at every entrance to the Sky Train. At the entrance to Limpini Park. He could feel what should have been; but didn't know how to answer. I didn't care, even when he was ripping me off. I was simply a soldier, on a path to ruin, he declared. And all was expelled, all made new, and yet his own answers were like far off Christmases, seen through a television mist, exposed for myth. He couldn't really explain what was happening.

That there was nothing concrete, that the simplest of calls through him into ruin, made for an answer that was often brutal, yet at the same time lacking in substance. The streets were quiet, it being a Sunday. Ian had arrived at the apartment from Australia at 3am. All was jostling for position. Larger than life. Bigger than a tree. Big, was all he could say, failing to cross the language barrier. Big. Everything. Big of body, big of personality. Here in these quiet times, where his ruinous instincts only served to make things worse. Where he would happily have dived into oblivion, if it had provided any thing at all, any answer. But the high apartments floating on the ceilings of ice, the sheets of cloud, high in the sky, were only remnants of old sail boats, places they had been before. There wasn't an answer in any kaleidoscope, no matter how easily conjured. It was hard to imagine that anything could be worse. Or better. That he could be happier, or sadder. More together or more unkempt. More fulfilled or more empty. The pain and disillusion kept up its constant rhythm. He could hear them making love through the wall, Ian and Sexy Sar. And he decided he didn't want to hear, turning up old Rolling Stones as loud as the thin walls would permit. As loud as the frequent calls would permit. For as long as he could submit to any form of denial. It was all wrong. And strangely, just as he had written about crows heralding the deaths of old warriors, of birds flying backwards through the sky, they gathered in Limpini, and nobody but he seemed to see.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/purepoison/2010/09/10/weekend-talk-thread-september-10-12/#comments

Ray Hunt
Posted September 10, 2010 at 8:27 pm | Permalink
While it’s unfortunate that Julia Gillard has inherited such a
poisonous media environment, to simply blame a relentlessly-malignant
Murdoch media agenda and a lazy, blinkered, herd-mentality amongst the
Canberra political reporters would be to miss the underlying strategic
problem – and ignore the single best opportunity the Gillard
Government has of succeeding politically during the next three years.

If the ALP was a corporation, the organisational response to their
dreadful performance during the 2010 election campaign would have been
brutal, wide ranging and swift. Many heads would have rolled.

But politics is a specialised business, the art of the possible, so
the axing of Rudd, Swan, Arbib and the incompetent NSW right mafia
can’t/won’t happen. File it under realpolitik. Minority status means
the government can’t afford any of these incompetent hacks outside the
tent.

The unprofessional and reactionary communications approach of the ALP
since November 2007, however, is an area where much can and should be
done.

In a speech to the ALP party room on Thursday that clearly marked her
intention to adopt a different presentational style to Rudd, Julia
Gillard said her government would not be worried by the daily news
cycle. ”Our challenge is to get out clear (linear messages about) what
we stand for – not be worried about each day’s 6 o’clock news,”
according to a report by Michelle Grattan and Katharine Murphy in
Friday’s Age.

The ALP had a good economic story to tell during the 2010 election
campaign. They had protected Australian jobs during the worst global
economic turbulence since 1929. Interest rates were low. Inflation was
low. Government debt was low. Economic growth was the high. The ALP’s
economic policies had clearly delivered for their natural constituency
on the issue that mattered most to most people, but even with an army
of spin doctors and plenty of paid advertising they could not get this
positive message out.

Julia Gillard has publicly acknowledged on a number of occasions the
government communications effort was poor. Why is it so? The problems
were born during the ALP’s brilliantly-executed 2007 election
campaign.

In 2007 the highly-effective advertising campaign was run by a
well-known, left-leaning communications group; and the ground-breaking
online guerrilla campaign that was lifted by Team Obama the following
year was delivered by a small group of creatives. Both teams worked
pro-bono for 9 months. Success usually has many fathers but not this
time. Rudd’s cocky Gen Y spin doctors and an advertising identity who
did the Kevin 07 branding work and TVCs claimed all the credit for a
focused campaign they had played marginal roles in.

The creative brains behind the campaign were shafted. Not paid, not
credited and kicked into the long grass. This story is common
knowledge in ALP circles and has been written about by The Age’s Shaun
Carney, The Daily Telegraph’s Malcolm Farr, The Australian’s David
Burchell and Mike Steketee and others.

So, on November 24 2007, there was an abrupt end to the strategic
media focus, the positive linear messaging, the effective issues
management, the wit and charm of the campaign, and so ended the ALP’s
ability to get their key messages out to “their people” via the media.

In place of strategic media management, came smart-arse, sexist,
reactionary techniques. Plenty of clever short-term tactical plays but
no strategy and no joined-up approach to whole of government
communications.

Led by Rudd, a sub-prime communicator with a fragile ego and
vindictive personality, political journalists were used, abused and
discarded by his spin team just like the hapless campaign creatives
had been.

Lachlan Harris, who was placed in Rudd’s office by Wayne Swan, was the
main offender but he was not alone. Rudd’s media team lacked an
understanding of the complex game of media chess they were supposed to
be playing – they were demonstrably unable to proactively or
reactively manage issues – because they lacked professional experience
and life skills.

Equally important, Cabinet Ministers and Rudd’s senior media people
lacked the foresight and courage to pull Rudd back into line, even
thought the many communication and personality problems that
ultimately led to Rudd’s down-fall were already apparent by February
2009.

Journalists were enraged by the way Rudd and his spin doctors
mistreated and insulted them. News Ltd’s senior people were equally
enraged by a deluded Rudd screeching idle threats at them.

The unprofessional Rudd media team broke the basic rules of political
media engagement – there is always tomorrow, you can’t win
confrontationally, the media pack for all their annoying quirks needs
to be charmed, persuaded and carried along by linear narratives; not
bullied, personally insulted and ignored.

Ultimately, the graceless Rudd posse reaped what they sowed, the only
surprise is that the inevitable consequences of their many
professional failures took two years to materialise.

Unprofessional communications practices, ill-will and lack of strategy
are the primary reasons why the ALP could not get the good news out
during the 2010 campaign. The journos were so dirty they would not
listen and the unpaid brains behind the 2007 campaign for some strange
reason declined to get ripped-off again.

It’s also why Julia Gillard has had to deal with such a toxic media
terrain from day two of her Prime Ministership.

So what should the ALP do about this poisonous media relations hangover?

The answer is surprisingly simply.

Have a clean sweep of the Ministerial media offices. Step one, sack
all of Rudd’s former media advisors. Bring in the people who actually
delivered the goods in 2007 to do a top-to-bottom communications
audit. As part of the process, ask the gallery journalists to identify
who the most “shop soiled” of the spin doctors are. Discover which
names keep popping up and terminate them.

Make the rest of the government spin doctors reapply for their jobs.
All of them. Intensively test them over a full week – in practice and
theory – using evidence-based metrics to identify those who have the
integrity and the necessary strategic, creative, issues-management and
media-relations skills to professionally fill these positions.

Replace the many that don’t make the cut with experienced
professionals from a variety of non-ALP backgrounds.

And run a very-humble, relationship-repair program with the political
journalists who, like it or not, do more to shape the general public’s
perceptions of politics than anyone else.

For Julia Gillard, the one shining star of the 2010 campaign disaster,
acting now to rebuild the government’s communications apparatus is her
great big opportunity to make a clean break with the toxic Rudd
hangover and finally start getting some of the government’s positive
messages into the public domain.

It may be her only chance.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/rudd-the-wrong-choice-bishop/story-e6frf7jx-1225918474301

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard's appointment of Kevin Rudd as foreign minister risks Australia's international relations because of the fractured relationship between the pair, Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop says.

Ms Bishop told reporters in Perth this afternoon that Ms Gillard had missed an opportunity to "clear away the wreckage of the Rudd-Gillard government".

"The leader that was sacked by his own party because he led the government off course ... is now expected to navigate Australia through our foreign policies," Ms Bishop said.

"The leader who was sacked by his own party because he could not get along with people is now Australia's number-one diplomat."

Ms Bishop said Mr Rudd had caused damage to some of Australia's most important international relationships and was now being sent back to repair that damage.

"The relationship between the prime minister and the foreign minister should be one of absolute trust and confidence," she said.

"Yet Julia Gillard has appointed as foreign minister the man who she tore down so brutally from the position of prime minister and we know that Kevin Rudd then spent most of the election campaign in retribution.

"The Australian people know it was the Kevin Rudd camp that released information and so breached cabinet confidence against Julia Gillard and revealed her opposition to pension increases and a paid parental leave scheme."

She also said it was "the Rudd camp" that had leaked the news that Julia Gillard did not attend all national security meetings and had sent her staff instead.

Ms Bishop said Mr Rudd's appointment presented a risk for Australia "because of the fractured relationship between Ms Gillard and Mr Rudd".

Ms Bishop said Stephen Smith, who now moved from foreign affairs to defence, had been "a steady hand on the wheel" and there was no reason why he should have not remained in foreign affairs.

"It seems that Stephen Smith will now be taking on the role of peacemaker," she said.

Ms Bishop said Mr smith would bear a heavy burden not only as defence minister but also ensuring a truce was kept between the Gillard and Rudd camps in government.

She said that under Mr Rudd's prime ministership some of Australia's most important overseas relationships had deteriorated, including those with China, India, Japan and Indonesia.

He would have his work cut out for him to repair that damage, Ms Bishop said.

"He will obviously have to apologise to East Timor for the bungle Julia Gillard made over announcing that East Timor would have a processing centre for asylum seekers when East Timor doesn't want such a centre."

A Bangkok building site.