Writer
Richard Whitington
Richard Whitington was a member of Gough Whitlam’s staff from 1974 to 1977. He’d been a journalist, briefly, and a political publicist, later spending 25 years in marketing and corporate communications, initially with the ALP’s advertising agency in the late 70s and early 80s. He finished his career with 20 years in executive recruitment and retired in 2019 to do some freelance writing. Website: richardwhitington.com
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Perpetuating a myth about the source of the “teals” vote
In the wake of the Aston by-election and, more importantly, last year’s federal election, the Liberal Party could easily be misled into dismissing the “teals” as a sneaky Labor/Greens front. Continue reading »
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Playbook for AUKUS campaign wins coveted award
Britain’s Oxford Dictionary and America’s Webster’s have moved quickly to shut down further nominations for the 2023 “Word of the Year”. They’ve declared “aukustrate” the unbeatable winner. Unsurprisingly, Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary found no reason to disagree, and fell into line. Continue reading »
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Did $863 secure a Labor majority in the Reps?
How cheap is democracy? Improbable as it might seem,$863, spent on Facebook, might have given the ALP the 76th seat it needed to govern in its own right. What? Continue reading »
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Crimson with embarrassment about Teal results
Teals prove real, despite not making deals Continue reading »
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Preferences confusion compounded!
On the very day my article, The preferences conundrum for Independents, was published, on 4th May I found this how to vote card in my letterbox, from Nicolette Boele, a well-resourced candidate who’s running an energetic and impressively visible campaign in the safe Liberal seat of Bradfield. Continue reading »
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The preferences conundrum for Independents
St Luke said: “Give and you will receive.” St Paul, said: “It’s better to give than to receive.” Continue reading »
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John Mant remembered
John Mant, who died on 10 July 2021 aged 84, leaves a legacy which is still in the making, especially in the field of urban planning. Continue reading »
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Albanese has touched a nerve on IR policy and should be encouraged by the response
The release of the ALP’s industrial relations policy is another reminder of the erosion of employment rights and benefits, the degree to which that is attributable to the decline in union membership, and how Labor should approach its relationship with trade unions. Continue reading »
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The hidden corrosion of good intent: an inbuilt problem for Labor, as much as it is for the Coalition
Labor needs to confront its own contribution to undermining faith in politics. What does it have to fear, or lose, from claiming the moral high ground? Continue reading »
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RICHARD WHITINGTON. Rudd’s GFC response versus Morrison’s to Covid-19
Inevitably, comparisons are already being invited: between Kevin Rudd’s 2008-09 response to the Global Financial Crisis and Scott Morrison’s to the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. Continue reading »
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RICHARD WHITINGTON. Berejiklian ticking off the milestones on way to creating NSW history.
Next Monday marks the first anniversary of Gladys Berejiklian becoming the first female to be elected Premier of NSW, and the Liberals’ third straight victory. Continue reading »
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RICHARD WHITINGTON. Dies, mensis, annus….for the superstitious numerologists.
With Valentine’s Day, 14 February, not far off, I was starting to think about…….then it struck me! Continue reading »
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RICHARD WHITINGTON AND RICHARD BUTLER. Noam Chomsky’s theory of “Manufactured Consent”. Where “lies” the media? Part 3 of 4
In this series, Richard Whitington and Richard Butler discuss what’s changed since philosopher and psychologist, Noam Chomsky, identified the relationship between business, the military, the intelligence community and the media, in manipulating public opinion. Continue reading »
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RICHARD WHITINGTON AND RICHARD BUTLER. Noam Chomsky’s “manufactured consent”. What’s changed, 30 years on? Part 1 of 4
Thirty years ago, psychologist and philosopher, Noam Chomsky, wrote of “manufactured consent”, the phenomenon which sees the self-serving interests of the powerful and often opaque – the military/industrial complex and “big business” – coalesce with those of the supposedly transparent and independent, but equally powerful: the media. Continue reading »
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RICHARD WHITINGTON. Bushfire inaction from the Commonwealth? Federation is the real villain.
Many of the shots laid on Scott Morrison are as justified as they are cheap. But in many respects his hands are tied by what our forebears voted for more than 120 years ago: narrow, not national interests. Continue reading »
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RICHARD WHITINGTON. What started with Whitlam in Werriwa in 1952 remains a work in progress.
Tomorrow 29 November, is the 67th anniversary of Edward Gough Whitlam’s election to the Australian Parliament in 1952. Twenty years and three days later he became Prime Minister, after Labor’s longest exile in opposition, and nine straight election losses. Whitlam’s path to his 1972 victory had much of its foundation in the monumental task of Continue reading »
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RICHARD WHITINGTON. What will Weatherill, Emerson and the willy-wag-tails teach the wombats?
Here we have two wombats, Lofty and Rorty. They’re stranded on the median strip in the middle of a busy freeway, on their way home from a meeting where, against most expectations, they were outflanked in their bid to take over the Association of Australian Native Animals (AANA). Continue reading »
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RICHARD WHITINGTON. David Combe obituary
David Combe was a significant and accomplished figure not only in Australian politics but in business and international trade, with an unwavering commitment to social justice and civil liberties. He deserves to be remembered for more than the “Iraqi Donations” affair of 1975-6, let alone the “Combe/Ivanov” affair of 1983. He won’t thank me for Continue reading »
