Noel Turnbull
Noel Turnbull has had a 50-year-plus career in public relations, politics, journalism and academia. He blogs at http://noelturnbull.com/blog/
Noel's recent articles
7 September 2022
Why are the Greens opposing the Voice?
As the Greens flirt with a serious loss of electoral support over its policy on the Voice to Parliament, the puzzling question is why they are doing it.
3 September 2022
What is it with pollies, tanks and defence waste?
What is with politicians and tanks and other armoured vehicles?
2 September 2022
The Murdoch media is in a class of its own with news replaced by propaganda
In declining order of trust: The Age, SMH, Guardian online, News com.au, Sky News, Herald Sun and Daily Telegraph come below the 50% mark with Sky News boasting the highest dont trust rating. Would someone please remind us who owns the four at the bottom of the trust scale?
25 July 2022
Rupert falls out with Jerry and Donald
In the space of a few weeks Rupert Murdoch has dumped both Jerry Hall and Donald Trump. One dumped for threatening to cost him money and one because he can no longer deliver Ruperts other love-power.
23 July 2022
The devil might not have the best tunes
The ongoing success of Republicans and US right wingers might be characterised as being due to the devil having the best tunes.
17 July 2022
The US, institutions and political violence
It is no longer completely ridiculous to ponder whether the US might be heading towards a new low level civil war.
25 June 2022
Hubristic Greens
There is one area in which the Greens are out in a class of their own hubris.
11 June 2022
If only.....Australia
It would be easy to develop a history of recent Australian history around the theme of if only.
30 March 2022
The lack of trust in Morrison and the media
The latest Roy Morgan Research Trust and Distrust quarterly report is bad news for Scott Morrison and the media.
19 March 2022
Once upon a time workers had trade union support
Many workers today whether casuals or professionals would love such a life today.Once upon a time, more than a century ago, stonemasons working on new Melbourne University buildings walked off the job in their campaign to win an eight hour working day.
2 February 2022
Australia is more corrupt than ever, but the media stays quiet
Australia has a deteriorating global corruption ranking and the mainstream media is ignoring it entirely.
30 January 2022
Out of focus: the pitfalls of political market research
Political parties spend big on focus group research with the approach of an election - but changes in methodology raise questions over its worth.
20 December 2021
Tactical voting: Labor supporters can tip balance towards independents
The push to elect independent mainly female candidates in Coalition seats in 2022 will partly rely on co-operation from the other side.
16 December 2021
Fossil fuels: the campaign to force PR agencies to clean up their act
The links between advertising agencies and the oil and gas industry are coming under increasing pressure through name-and-shame tactics.
12 December 2021
What successful capitalism can teach Scott Morrison
Corporate leaders who show empathy and kindness and foster a positive culture are the most successful the PM should take heed.
8 December 2021
More winning suggestions for Labor to take on board
Our recent 10-point plan for an ALP victory at the next election prompted a reaction that shows many voters desperately want Labor to stand for something.
2 December 2021
Surge in independent candidates illustrates mistrust of the party system
A report into the state of Australian politics should serve as a wake-up call for the major parties and anyone who cares about the nation's future.
16 November 2021
PM ignores our modelling experts and hires a controversial global consultant
The awarding of a $6 million climate modelling contract to McKinsey was no surprise given the government's record of rorts, secrecy and corruption.
19 August 2021
Liar, liar pants on fire
It is commonly believed if you are going to consistently tell lies you need either a good memory or a hide like a rhinoceros. These days neither seems to be necessary.
17 August 2021
Will Australia learn from Saigon?
It is a few months more than 179 years since 4,500 British and 'Native' troops and 12,000 camp followers were forced to leave Kabul.
10 August 2021
The mystery political staffer running government rorting.
It is now known that one person in the Prime Minister's office drew up the spreadsheets for both the sports and car park rorts.
9 August 2021
Commemoration is the second casualty of war
The Australian Government is very, very slow to address veterans' problems witness the tardiness on the veterans' suicide issue yet it is always quick off the mark to dream up some new commemoration of conflict.
31 July 2021
The Nordics are way out in front for happiness in the COVID era
It may be surprising but a lot of people in the world are happier in the midst of COVID and lockdowns than they were although Australia is a slight exception.
18 July 2021
Wanting a social marketing campaign on Covid and getting a band aid instead
There is one thing almost everybody commenting about Australia's poor vaccine roll out agrees with the need for an advertising campaign.
17 July 2021
Making atheists and doubters count in the next Census
While fundamentalist Christians are busy infiltrating the Liberal Party the Rationalist Society of Australia (RSA) and other groups have launched a campaign the Census 21 Campaign to encourage people to tick the no religion box in the August 10 2021 Australian Census.
10 July 2021
What does it take to get sacked from the Morrison Cabinet?
Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away there was a concept called the Westminster principle of Ministerial responsibility if you failed in your responsibility you resigned or got sacked.
30 June 2021
The difference between fake and genuine apologies
These days there are frequent apologies, non-apologies, refusals to apologise and extended qualifications of apologies with weasel phrases such as this is not who we are despite the behaviour of the organisation uttering the words obviously being exactly who and what they are.
16 June 2021
AICD outflanks Morrison on the left
The Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) doesn't immediately spring to mind as one of the major progressive voices except perhaps in contrast with Scott Morrison.
10 June 2021
Climate tipping point looms
It is ironic that the most successful film in box office terms about climate change and dramatic changes to the earth was made by Rupert Murdoch's 20th Century Fox.
9 June 2021
Liberal Party accusations on Premier Andrews' spinal injury
The Victorian Liberal Opposition has been clutching at straws for some time witness their landslide loss at the last election but now they are now sinking into desperate measures with this latest attack on Premier Daniel Andrews.
7 June 2021
Australian barriers to electric vehicles and batteries
There are two significant barriers to the take-up of electric vehicles (EVs) in Australia publicly accessible charging infrastructure suitable for a large country, and Scott Morrison.
30 May 2021
The rich are getting richer and richer - what is Labor planning to do about it?
While Federal Labor is disappearing into a fearful huddle desperate to avoid any suggestion it would ever try to make Australia a more equitable place, the rich are getting richer and richer.
23 May 2021
Morrison churlishly ignores scientific achievement
Scott Morrison's churlishness is always on show when some Australian achieves great success in any area when Morrison's perceived political enemies lurk.
22 May 2021
An intellectual populist precursor
Before Maggie Thatcher, Nigel Farage, John Howard, George Osborne and Donald Trump there was Enoch Powell.
3 May 2021
Our Christian heritage and the culture wars
The culture war drum-beats are sounding again pounded out by the usual suspects in the Murdoch media and among shock jocks and the Morrison Government.
1 May 2021
When does Scotty's frenzied marketing become counter productive?
The majority of Australians aren't that interested in politics.They have their life to get on with and really only get involved in issues which affect them directly like vaccinations or which touch a nerve as Morrison's handling of women's issues has with Australian women.
27 April 2021
Debunking misinformation and climate change
It might be surprising given the scale of the problem, but there is an emerging consensus about the current status of the science of misinformation and its debunking in respect to climate change.
20 April 2021
Who is Australia's worst Health Minister? How does Greg Hunt rate?
In the past 50 years, Australia has had 23 health ministers. But who is the worst?
12 April 2021
Take a closer look - the art galleries among victims of the pandemic
There are many things so many of us have missed during lockdowns that it is difficult to make a list or even start to develop one in ranked order even though there has been plenty of time to think about it.
11 April 2021
A nauseating colonial cringe by our media for an upper class Steptoe.
The BBC scrapped all regular programming to cover Prince Phillip's death. The complaints roared in from viewers, listeners and online followers who complained that it was all too much and they wanted their regular programs back
28 March 2021
A tale of two Morrisons
There are two Morrisons who have confronted sexism in their ranks. One, David, showed leadership. The other, Scott, showed the antithesis of leadership.
24 March 2021
Have unions healed their racist past?
When Federation occurred in 1901 trade unions and conservative politicians were agreed on one thing keeping Australia white.
23 March 2021
Is technology the only way to solve technology-driven misinformation?
Technology-driven misinformation has become so powerful that it is impossible to reply on individuals to sift through the 'facts'. Is technology-driven truth detection our only way out?
13 March 2021
How to tackle the dangerous epidemic of fake news and conspiracy theories.
The Macquarie Dictionary recently declared 'fake news' the word of the decade. While the epidemic of fake news and conspiracy theories shows no signs of abating, the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communications has made a significant contribution to the fight.
4 March 2021
Poll shows Scott Morrison shares Trump's female problem
A new Guardian Essential poll (3 March 2021) indicates an emerging Morrison vulnerability he shares a female problem with Donald Trump. Well, not the major Trump one just the electoral one.
23 February 2021
The frightening cost of Morrison's climate inaction
Scott Morrison loves saying he wont take action on climate change without knowing what it will cost. Joel Fitzgibbon takes the same tack when defending his coal mining constituents. But now we have a clear idea of the cost of not taking action.
16 February 2021
What's the point of Labor?
As the Labor Opposition jettisons policies on negative gearing, capital gains taxes, franking credits and climate change policies that dont embrace coal you have to ask whats the point of Labor?
9 February 2021
How good is Morrison's Australia? Going backwards and being left behind
After seven years of a Coalition government, household debt is the second highest of 43 countries; we ranked third last out of 35 OECD countries for wage growth and we have the third most unaffordable housing market in the OECD. But the good news is that the combined worth of Australian billionaires is 52.4% higher in December 2020 than it was a year earlier.
3 February 2021
Morrison's not a miracle worker; he just got lucky with an inept Opposition Leader
Since the Coalition came to power in 2013 Australia has fallen down the Transparency International corruption index from seventh to its current 11. With endless material to attack the Coalition over corruption issues, why is the Albanese-led Opposition apparently incapable of doing so?