[R-G] AUS: A nation caught in the spin cycle

[Anthony Fenton]

Copyright 2007 The Age Company Limited
All Rights Reserved
Sunday Age (Melbourne, Australia)

August 5, 2007 Sunday
First Edition

SECTION: EXTRA; Opinion; Pg. 15

LENGTH: 914 words

HEADLINE: A nation caught in the spin cycle

BYLINE: Sally Young - Dr Sally Young is a lecturer in media and  
communications at Melbourne University, and editor of Government  
Communication in Australia.

BODY:


A review of government communications policy in Australia is long  
overdue, writes Sally Young.

TONY BLAIR's former press chief Alastair Campbell has just released  
his long-awaited diaries. The Blair Years: Extracts from the Alastair  
Campbell Diaries are the account of Campbell's time as chief spin  
doctor for the Blair Labour government. Campbell, who resigned in  
2003 following an inquiry into the dodgy dossier of information  
presented in support of the Iraq War, is represented by the British  
Labour Party and the new Gordon Brown-led government as the old face  
of government communications.

After Campbell's resignation amid growing concern about the influence  
of spin doctors, there was an independent review of government  
communications chaired by former media executive Bob Phillis. The  
Phillis Inquiry recommended a range of reforms to separate party- 
political functions from government business and the Blair government  
implemented many of them.

This process of winding back the power of spin has accelerated under  
Gordon Brown. When installed as prime minister a month ago, one of  
his first acts was to curb the powers of political advisers over  
officials.

Considering that we often follow British trends in government  
communication, the question then for Australians is whether we will  
see the same sort of thing happen here. Will our politicians also try  
to curb their addiction to spin? Perhaps. But it doesn't seem that  
this will happen any time soon. We simply do not have the same sorts  
of pressures that have led British politicians to renounce spin and  
reform government communications.

For a start, we have no figure equivalent to Campbell to draw  
attention to the phenomenon. Australian political advisers are far  
more discreet.

Also, unlike Britain (and Canada), we have had no independent  
assessment of government communications to prompt change. There has  
been no major independent inquiry into government communications at  
the federal level since the Royal Commission on Australian Government  
Administration chaired by H.C. Coombs in 1974-76.

Instead, all the signs point to a culture of spin that shows no signs  
of slowing. Government advertising is now at outrageous levels, with  
Australia among the top-spending countries per capita on government  
advertising.

This is particularly obvious in an election year. In the past few  
months, we've seen federal government advertising campaigns on  
superannuation, industrial relations, healthcare, citizenship and  
anti-terrorism. These ad campaigns are part of a softening-up process  
in which the federal government uses taxpayers' money to put out  
messages ahead of the election. They hope the ads will soothe voters  
concerned about the industrial relations changes, convince sceptics  
of their credentials on climate change and remind voters about  
national security, terrorism and other fears that might lead them to  
stick with the incumbent government.

Aside from the ads, we're also hearing accusations that the  
government has a taxpayer-funded dirt unit devoted to election-year  
attacks on the Opposition.

But this is not just a federal government problem.

Across Australia, governments at all levels, and of both major  
parties, are collectively spending billions of dollars on  
advertising, media relations and PR. They are misusing the resources  
of office to fight a permanent campaign at taxpayer expense and they  
are exerting increasing control over media content.

There has been a lot of debate about the role of the Australian media  
in all this. Is the media a victim or a willing conduit of government  
spin?

Some commentators blame the media for the rise of spin, arguing that  
media reporting is overly cynical about politics and that media  
outlets are placing intense pressure on governments by being more  
focused on scandals and more hungry for news content in a 24-hour  
news cycle.

But others argue that media outlets actually act more like lapdogs  
than watchdogs of government. According to this theory, because media  
outlets are faced with fragmenting audiences and a range of economic  
pressures, journalists and media outlets are being overwhelmed by the  
resources of government (including the armies of media advisers that  
governments employ) so they resort to merely regurgitating government  
spin because this is both cheap and convenient.

In a new book I have edited, Government Communication in Australia,  
academics Shelly Savage and Rodney Tiffen see the relationship as  
more complex. They say there are three interacting sets of games  
going on: politicians versus politicians; journalists competing with  
each other; and politicians and journalists relating to each other  
for their own advantage. Because Australia has one of the most  
concentrated media ownership structures of any liberal democracy in  
the world - with only a handful of major media companies - these  
relationships are intense and quite difficult to change.

In Britain, the reforms have been heralded as the death of spin.  
Others have suggested more cynically that a move to no spin is the  
new spin.

But while the reforms introduced in the UK have had their critics,  
there have been some concrete actions taken there to stop the  
blurring between party and government publicity and there is an  
active public debate going on about media-government relations. At  
this stage, in Australia, the picture is far bleaker.

Dr Sally Young is a lecturer in media and communications at Melbourne  
University, and editor of Government Communication in Australia.