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

Let the JobKeeper rorts roll

Where do we start when considering the $100 billion JobKeeper scheme? Should we focus on the opaque nature of the scheme in which less than 3% of JobKeeper payments have been disclosed in public company accounts and there is no way of finding out who got what and how much?

Ongoing Trumpism Australian influence predictions probably overblown

Kishor Napier-Raman posed a question about the Australian political future when he wrote (crikey 15 January 2021) that: The question is no longer whether Trumpian politics are on the rise in Australia, its now a question of how severe the damage will be.

Three word slogans - Part 2

One of the most successful three word slogans in recent-ish political history the Thatcher Oppositions Labour Isnt Working almost didnt get seen by the client.

Paranoid politics is back - again

Paranoid politics always seem to be with us in some form or other. It has ebbed and flowed for centuries but in the past year, it has seemed more like a flood than a flow.

Polarisation decades in the making

Between 70% and 80% of Republican voters believe the recent Presidential election was rigged. While its astonishing funding it is not simply representative of the Trump years but more a reflection of steadily developing attitudes over some decades.

Will he really run in 2024?

Will he run in 2024? Will, he set up a new Trump TV channel? Will he continue to dominate the Republican Party and Tweet it into loyal submission?

2020: The year of three-word slogans

If Scott Morrison is to be remembered for more than knifing Malcolm Turnbull, the 2019 election, bushfires, corruption and climate denial, it will be his propensity to relentlessly deploy two or three-word slogans.

Disillusioned Aussie youth diss democracy

Young Australians now rank among the groups most dissatisfied with democracy in the world better than among others like Venezuela and the US but worse than Ghana and Peru.

A blueprint for action on integrity

Since the Liberal-National Part Government came to power Australias ranking in Transparency Internationals (TI) global corruption surveys has fallen.

Framing the Palace Letters by our National Archives

It doesnt need a conspiratorial mind frame to explain the Murdoch media, Morrison Government and National Archives synchronous framing of the Palace Letters just a realisation that such strategies are now so institutionalised that overt co-ordination is unnecessary.

Fraudster will create US COVID vaccination problems

In the US we can guarantee that someone among the anti-vaxxers will be claiming that the new President is trying to poison them and/or forcibly convert them to communism.

Soldiers vs warriors: a distinction between Australian and US troops and Kerry Stokes!

Whats the difference between a soldier and a warrior? And in what environment is the distinction in danger of being lost? If Kerry Stokes wants to get involved he is entitled to but, if he does, he should also step aside from his role at the Australian War Memorial.

Something to think about other than that election

In the past 75 years, there have been two authors who have profoundly demonstrated the effects when language is mangled and distorted and, conversely, how to write clearly and powerfully.

A Harold Evans postscript

What sort of obituary do you think The Sunday Times would publish about probably its greatest editor, Harry Evans?

Morrison refuses to acknowledge Australian Nobel Peace prize winners

The Australian winners of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) are celebrating the ratification by 50 countries of The Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. However, the Morrison Government has refused to acknowledge the achievement just as they refuse to sign the treaty.

Morrison: How to market denialism on climate change

Scotty from marketing may now be the common Scott Morrison descriptor. When it comes to climate change it is more and more spin.

Lobby Land. The retiree lobby, the poor dears

Lobbyists can be pretty shameless from hyperbole about the unintended consequences of some legislative or policy change they dont like to arguments which would shame a beginner debater.

Army and Defence PR - an ungrateful mess

Australian Army PR was once a successful system which benefitted the troops, media and the community. Now it has been subsumed into a bureaucratic corporate brand management system closely controlled by Ministers and their staff.

Biden at Gettysburg

Donald Trump thought about giving his campaign speech at Gettysburg but opted for the safety of the Rose Garden instead.

A round up of the latest US polls

Whatever anyone thought of the first Presidential debate it doesnt seem to have yet halted Joe Bidens gradual increases in support as measured by a variety of US polls.

Australia and VC Awards

Among the many memorial plaques in the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral is a small plaque and bust honouring Captain Noel Godfrey Chavasse, VC & Bar, MC (9 November 1884 4 August 1917).

ALP rank and file push reforms

The Bracks-Macklin Victorian ALP review released its first recommendations in July 2020 no brainer rules amendments for immediate action to end bulk membership sign-ups and ensure individual members pay for their own membership.

How would a fairness campaign fare in Australia?

Whether it was ever a myth or not there has been until recently an ingrained belief that Australians value fairness and the fair go, as the concept was often characterised.

The myth and the veterans' problems that will not die

There are almost too many myths about Australias Vietnam War involvement to keep track. But one of them that all National Service conscripts had the option of volunteering or not when about to be posted to Vietnam is possibly the most persistent.

Greg Sheridan's feverish cherry picking

What has Greg Sheridan of The Australian been smoking or taking, or is it just common or garden cherry picking?

Tin ear PR

Sometimes PR campaigns to address problems cause even bigger PR problems. For instance the aged care industry is planning a major campaign to change the conversation and win the hearts and minds of middle Australia according to The Age (2 September 2020).

When power - or the desire for it - ends

When asked during one of his long, long media conferences about speculation on whether he was planning to stand down as Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews, replied Im not going anywhere.

Thank you for your service

The Morrison Governments hypocrisy ranges across many areas but one of the most galling is the disparity between the protestations about thanking veterans for their service and how they allocate veteran related budgets.

The looming financial and social storm - Part 2

Global debt, financial and social problems are about to get worse thanks to the usual suspects governments corporate welfare policies and corporate welfare rorts and dramatically increase inequality.

Why do LNP Governments hate the arts and universities?

LNP Governments vindictive attitudes to the arts are obvious from the widespread cutbacks they have imposed on the sector. Ditto universities which have been forced to rely on overseas students to make up funding shortfalls and are then attacked for doing so.

Putting Rosalind Franklin into pandemic perspective

The British decision to put Rosalind Franklins famous Photograph 51 on the new 50p coin is a reminder that the controversy over her DNA X-ray diffusion work is but one part of a much larger scientific career.

Four legs good two legs bad, private good public bad

For decades there has been a relentless chorus rather like Orwells four legs good two legs bad conditioning us to believe that private is good and public is bad.

Been there, done that - Thatcherism and Reaganomics revisited

The Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, has announced the government recovery strategy emulate Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. The problem is that Australia has been there and done that with the same very mixed results Reagan and Thatcher achieved.

Watching Fox News in the US may kill you

Recent US studies demonstrate that watching Murdochs US Fox News increases the likelihood of you believing whats not true about COVID-19 and if acting on it possibly dying.

How climate has changed the world

The Morrison Governments attitude to our history is that it started with Captain Cook and then as if transported by the DeLorean car arrived at the era of John Howard, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Milton Friedman.

The cost of outsourcing public health services

The current Victorian Hotel Quarantine Inquiry headed by the Honourable Justice Jennifer Coate AO is putting two things on trial one predictable media fodder and the other at the root of decades of neo-liberal outsourcing and privatisation.

Our warmongering allies: the alliance, Part 2

In 2004 Janet Jackson flashed a breast (sorry, suffered a wardrobe malfunction) during the Super Bowl half time entertainment. The same day 109 innocent civilians were killed in a suicide bombing in Iraq.

Australia and the US, an odd couple for an alliance

Successive Australian Governments have revelled in having a close relationship with their US counterparts. At times it is has been pandering; at others it has resulted in engaging in illegal or unwinnable wars; all cloaked in mutual admiration.

What does the Eden-Monaro result mean?

The Eden-Monaro by-election status quo ante result raises two questions: why isnt the Prime Ministers high approval rating translating into an improved rating for the government; and, why do the media keep up the same old tired approaches to covering political events?

US belief in national exceptionalism collapses

Donald Trump promised he would make America great again. Instead he has presided over a significant collapse in belief in American exceptionalism.

Three different views on post-COVID recovery

Two reports on social and economic options for post-COVID-19 recovery, one from the Grattan Institute and one from Phil Ruthven, have recently been published. We can assume there is a third, not yet public: a snap back and marketing plan lurking in the Prime Ministers mind.

Google is not always the best answer

Google has become the default casual research tool for most people, albeit a sometimes dangerous one for students with AI plagiarism software widely used in universities. Yet print editions of various reference texts are still of greater value and utility than online searches.

How and why political parties are corrupted in Victoria and elsewhere

Modern Australian political parties are more likely to be corrupted by ideological or religious fanatics and power-seekers than by disputes about policy and how to get into government.

The battle to shape perceptions of political parties

Right wingers are better at framing policies than progressive parties.

NOEL TURNBULL. Who cares about scandals, incompetence and corruption?

Recently the New Daily ran two Michael Pascoe pieces exposing a $2.5 billion regional grants program rort 25 times bigger than the sports rorts. Forwarding it on to someone elicited the surprising response: Who cares?

NOEL TURNBULL. There's no doubt Morrison is swimming against a tidal wave Part 3

The Morrison Government is adopting the newest form of doubting climate change by arguing that yes it does exist but that it can all be fixed by some unproven technological developments such as carbon capture or hydrogen both of which may end up looking a bit like nuclear fusion just around the corner for decades.

NOEL TURNBULL. Nev Power's fossil mates still pushing doubt - Part 2

In 2008 David Michaels published a book Doubt is their Product. How Industrys Assault on Science Threatens your Health which was instrumental in the subsequent exposure of the systematic efforts of various industries to raise doubt about the science relating to areas from tobacco to todays climate change.

NOEL TURNBULL. Nev is never in doubt

Reflecting on when the Prime Minister rang to ask him head the Governments COVID-19 Task Force Nev Power said he couldnt refuse the PM reacting as any responsible citizen would.

NOEL TURNBULL. They're not all knukcle-dragging proto fascists

It is often easy to imagine that all Americans are unhinged, gun-toting, Bible bashing, conspiracy believers, LBQT+ haters and Trump supporters.

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