Category: Politics
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Who does what? Civil society organisations and federal election campaigns
What civil society organisations (CSOs) do during election campaigns depends on a lot of different factors. CSOs are typically not-for-profit, for-purpose, non-government organisations – basically we’re talking about non-market and non-state organisations (though of course those lines can get blurry, as can any theoretical categorisation). In this article, I’m going to explore some of the…
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The Truth is Out There – Civil Society Supporter Emails in the Federal Election
When Ariadne Vromen and I started talking about researching civil society organisation activity in the 2025 federal election, one of the methods of analysis that I wanted to add (from what she and Serin Loane had done in 2022) was the supporter emails these organisations send. In my mind, CSOs use emails as a key…
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Advance’s Week 1 YouTube Assault – Civil society campaigning in the 2025 Federal Election
As mentioned last week, I’m following various civil society / third sector campaigns during the 2025 Australian Federal election campaign, part of some research with Ariadne Vromen. One of the places we’re tracking activity is one YouTube. In 2024, YouTube claimed over 20 million users in Australia, was the second highest social media app used…
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Civil society campaigning in the 2025 Federal Election – Day 1
So, this election, I’m following civil society / third party campaigns, for some research with colleagues Ariadne Vromen and Anne Nielsen. We’ll be observing various of their activities – their media appearances, social media activity (Facebook, Insta, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn) and also the emails they send to their supporter lists. The aim is to understand…
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A Tale of Two Political Engagement Toolkits
Back in 2015, I worked with the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) to produce a Political Engagement Toolkit for Community Radio Broadcasters. It consisted of a 24-page report and six factsheets designed to support CBAA’s member organisations – over 300 community broadcasters across the country – to plan and implement their interactions with politicians…
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Community Campaigning can Trump Populism [article]
Originally Published by ABC Religion and Ethics, 26 May 2022. “This was not your typical election outcome. The Australian Labor Party (ALP) is forming government with the lowest primary vote in history. The moderate men of the Liberal Party were wiped out in urban areas by moderate liberal women. Populists Clive Palmer and Pauline Hanson…
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Two songs and two books with Gough Whitlam
Like a lot of things with politics, I came to know about Gough late. I was of a generation who inherited his government’s landmark reforms – reforms I’ll forever be thankful for and hold as a model of progressive government – get in there and move things forward, don’t just tinker with the engine to…
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Choose your words carefully
The first piece of education I remember receiving was in Year One, at Our Lady Queen of Peace Primary School in Greystanes, Western Sydney. I would have been six. Mrs Szukalski – a tall, blonde woman in her early twenties, coincidentally (or not) my first crush that wasn’t fictional – told the class that for…