3 August 2011

Liberals catch up to Bimberi

| johnboy
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Last week the Human Rights Commission’s report into Bimberi caused a bit of a stir.

Today the Liberals Vicki Dunne is wading in:

Ms Dunne said the report and its 224 recommendations illustrate the extent of neglect of young people in the youth justice system, and abuse of the staff charged with looking after them.

“This review of the youth justice centre confirms and justifies the Canberra Liberals’ calls for a complete review of Bimberi,” Ms Dunne said.

“ACT Labor has been preoccupied with building in bricks and mortar but unable to build a functioning institution that rehabilitates our young people.”

Better late than never.

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johnboy said :

housebound said :

More media releases – yes. I think everyone would like to see the Libs being more proactive.

But – not always ‘released’ (sometime just given to selected outlets then published to web a week or two later) and not always timely, and sometimes the published version is not the same as the one given to the media days (or even weeks) beforehand.

So… utilising a diabolically poor media strategy?

JB – I was talking about the ALP in that. Apologies – I should have been clearer.

housebound said :

More media releases – yes. I think everyone would like to see the Libs being more proactive.

But – not always ‘released’ (sometime just given to selected outlets then published to web a week or two later) and not always timely, and sometimes the published version is not the same as the one given to the media days (or even weeks) beforehand.

So… utilising a diabolically poor media strategy?

It’s not just riotact, the web-published media releases are what makes up the community newsletters, and countless other small publications that, i would contend, actually make up a bigger aggregated audience than the big three.

It’s not about defending one side or the other – it’s about being equally critical of all of them.

I personally think the whole system is rotten, but that’s the anarchist in me talking.

More media releases – yes. I think everyone would like to see the Libs being more proactive.

But – not always ‘released’ (sometime just given to selected outlets then published to web a week or two later) and not always timely, and sometimes the published version is not the same as the one given to the media days (or even weeks) beforehand.

colourful sydney racing identity11:45 am 03 Aug 11

housebound said :

Fair enough. I guess those rules make Labor even more incompetent, and they’re in government.

do you get tired of defending the indefensible?

housebound said :

Fair enough. I guess those rules make Labor even more incompetent, and they’re in government.

Well no, they put out far more media releases, and in a massively more timely fashion.

Media releases aren’t everything, but in the world of public communication they’re a good start.

Fair enough. I guess those rules make Labor even more incompetent, and they’re in government.

And the lack of a statement on their website, where everyone can get it, and only sending to their distribution lists today will rightly be read as gross incompetence if they did indeed have a statement earlier.

Anyone thinking ABC, WIN and CT is all the media in this town is a dangerous moron who shouldn’t be doing PR. (And I’m not just talking about RA as the alternative).

Their published response as sent to YOU and others on the general distribution list (ie not the A-list) is a week late. I’m sure they said something to WIN, ABC and the CT at the time.

I’ll have to retract everything I said if that’s not true of course.

I’m saying their response is a week late and not yet up on their website.

So what you’re saying is they need to be more accurate with the dates when sending out on the general distribution list.

The release is dated 3 August, have a look.

If they want to deliberately send out releases late we’ll keep pointing it out, it’s a poor PR strategy.

JB: did it ever occur to you that maybe you weren’t on the Libs’ A-list of media organisations to give out releases to?

Without looking at the whole public record, I had a vague idea that the Libs (and Greens and everyone else wanting to jump on the bandwagon) made their comments directly to the traditional media at the time the report was made available. The media releases now serve the purpose of telling the rest of us what they told the media.

For years now, Labor have been sending out their press releases DAYS after they go to selected outlets, if they send them out more widely at all. The Libs obviously do that too, and the Greens probably do as well. RA might be on the Greens and ALP list, but obviously not the Libs.

Look at it from their perspective: they’re not in government and they often face a hostile media in this town. Would you expect the Greens (pre balance of power status) to give the Australian equal access and greater opportunity to harass them when they could get a much better run through fairfax/ABC?

I agree the whole system is less than ideal, but surely we should be critical of them all for this secretive behaviour, not just the party we don’t like.

(This makes no comment on the content of the report – just the note about when JB received the media release)

So the best Dunne can come up with after all this is, ‘we need another review’??? It’s that kind of precision and insightfullness that… will ensure she stays in opposition for the foreseeable future.

Who the hell gives this woman oxygen?

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