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

NOEL TURNBULL. Putting lipstick on a pig

The phrase putting lipstick on a pig is probably unfair to pigs. For a generation brought up on Miss Piggy it might even be incomprehensible. But it does sum up a public relations innovation which resulted in a man who had been convicted of sexual assault getting positive coverage in the US magazines Forbes, HuffPost and National Review.

NOEL TURNBULL. Aquariums, indigenous achievement and climate denialism

Cairns in Far North Queensland is a remarkable place where remarkable things excellent, good, bad and odd occur.

NOEL TURNBULL. Where did it all start?

From whence and whereof cometh yon Trump? From some distant time or world? Well thats how it might be put in cod Elizabethan dialogue.

NOEL TURNBULL. The depths of hypocrisy

The defining characteristics of Australias right wing cultural warriors whether in the Liberal Party, the Murdoch media or the usual think tank suspects are their breathtaking hypocrisy and the very real threat they pose to the liberal values so many have fought to inculcate in society.

NOEL TURNBULL. The curious incident of the dog that didn't bark

There is nothing more beloved of apocalyptic thinkers, intelligence agencies, conservative politicians and general scare-mongers than the threat of some disaster. It is even better when the threat is insidious, little understood and able to be transformed into policies which actually have other purposes.

NOEL TURNBULL. A slight yearning for the 'mother country'

UK Tory Government climate policy is enough to create a slight yearning for the days when Australian conservatives looked to the so-called Mother Country for guidance.

NOEL TURNBULL. Remember the Alamo, remember the Maine etc etc etc

Remember the Alamo, remember the Maine, remember the Gulf of Tonkin, remember the weapons of mass destruction and now remember the Kokuka Sangyo tanker.

NOEL TURNBULL. When you think of Twitter what at do you think of first?

The automatic response when you hear the word Tweet is to associate it with Trump. Yet some recent Pew Research Center suggests the Tweeter in chief is out of step with most other Tweeters.

NOEL TURNBULL. WTF just happened?

Well, after a couple of weeks consideration, just another Steven Bradbury phenomenon, something else altogether, or perhaps just a re-run in more virulent form of the fake news and social media negative campaigns seen in the 2016 Presidential election and Brexit referendum?.

NOEL TURNBULL. Myths, myths and more myths

As Anzac Day approaches are you getting ready to remember afresh how Anzac defines Australian culture and history and why we fought; how the French will never forget Australia and its role in WWI; and, how our Vietnam veterans were spat upon, reviled and denied welcome home marches?

NOEL TURNBULL. Wages, jobs and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

This is the West sir, and when the legend becomes fact, print the legend says the reporter to the Governor who is returning to a town for the funeral of a friend,Tom Doniphon, in the final scenes of the 1965 film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. The quote came to mind when reading an obituary of the economist, Alan Krueger, just after reading yet another quote from yet another business leader saying that increasing the minimum wage would increase unemployment. And this wage-unemployment myth is very much part of a modern Western myth just as much as it was...

NOEL TURNBULL. The billion dollar question

If you were running the Victorian Government what would you do with a spare billion dollars? Education, health, clean energy, public transport, the arts, reduced taxes or something else entirely?

NOEL TURNBULL. A dangerous decline

It is symptomatic of much that is disturbing and dangerous about Australian political discourse that Australias continuing decline in international public sector corruption rankings is given so little attention.

NOEL TURNBULL. Dodging the draft

Kim Jong-un has managed to achieve something that Presidents Johnson and Nixon couldnt get the draft dodging Donald Trump to Vietnam. Of course Trump didnt stay long soon leaving on a jet plane.

NOEL TURNBULL. Alarmed with due cause.

As Australia is heading for the mother of fear campaigns for the next election it is significant that in the USA home of fear, loathing and negative campaigns voters are becoming alarmed about the most fundamental threat (other thannuclear war precipitated by Trump sitting on the button) to the future of our world.

NOEL TURNBULL. A climate of hope.

Despite Donald Trump, Scott Morrison and others there is a significant change of opinion on climate change around much of the western world particularly in the US of all places for the better.

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