First published on The Drum: 25/04/2011

Pollsters are regularly accused of treating politics like a sporting contest, so given there is no fresh data over Easter it’s time to indulge our inner footy fantasy.

Easter is bit like quarter time in a big game, the key contests are developing, both sides are giving us glimpses of their respective strengths and weaknesses while individual performances are coming under the microscope.

And if you look at the Two-Party Preferred scoreboard Tony Rabbit’s Blues are well ahead of Real Julia’s Reds after a scrappy start to a quarter that was ultimately dominated by one critical play.

The Scoreboard (2PP)

Read more »

First published on The Drum: 19/04/2011

The most intractable global conflict in the past 100 years, the struggle of the Israeli and Palestinian people to co-exist, confounds rather than polarises the Australian public.

With a bitter public debate playing out between conservative commentators and sections of the Australian Greens, this week’s Essential Report finds that when given the options of black or white, the general public opt for grey.

As we did recently with attitudes to Muslims, we asked the questions to understand, rather than inflame the issue. What we found was an electorate that is not picking sides and is prepared to admit the issue is too complex for simple solutions.

Q. What, in your view, is the single biggest obstacle to peace in the Middle East?

Read more »

This week in Sydney, EMC client Early Childhood Australia launched the report Our Future on the Line examining the progress being made towards the National Quality Framework by every state and territory.

The National Quality Framework is a landmark reform agenda for the early childhood education and care sector.

The report also made a public pitch for the first time to do away with the ‘c’ word.

Of course we’re talking about ‘childcare’, an antiquated term that many involved in the sector feel is outdated and not encompassing of the education and learning involved in this growing industry.

Read more »

What do you see in your mind when you’re asked to picture work in the disability and community care sector?

Did your vision include: meaningful and personally rewarding work, flexible hours, on-the-job training, and long-term job security?

No?

You’re not alone. When EMC undertook research for our client, carecareers, we discovered that only 24 per cent of those polled had considered a career in the disability and community care sector.

This was in spite of 63 per cent of those people simultaneously believing that work in this sector would be ‘quite or very rewarding’.

Read more »

First published on The Drum: 12/04/2011

The Prime Minister has been dedicating a significant slice of stump time in recent weeks to explaining the differences between the ALP and the Greens, how one emerges from real-world struggles and the other is a group of out-of-touch extremists.

A similar debate has been being waged within the Greens following their underwhelming NSW state election performance, where a local candidate’s intervention in the Middle East peace provided the platform to portray the party as a collective of bat-faced ideologues.

But as the debate about the Greens’ orientation gains pertinence as they move to assume the balance of power in the Senate a more basic fact is being missed: Labor voters and Green voters agree on just about everything.

A review of findings to Essential Research questions over the past few months finds that on nearly every big debate the similarities between Greens voters and Labor voters far outweigh their differences.

Read more »

First published on The Drum: 05/04/2011

The battlelines for this year’s federal budget have been drawn with the government and opposition performing the ritual flexing of their fiscal muscles to show they can conquer the deficit.

The prime minister used her speech to the Whitlam Institute last week to match the opposition’s economic machismo, accepting that the test of her leadership credentials will be her ability to return the budget to surplus by 2012/13. But, as this week’s Essential Report shows the public reject the key point of the pyrotechnics, with the majority of voters across party lines saying they would support delaying a return to surplus if it meant preventing cuts to services or extra tax.

Q. Do you think it is more important for the government to return the budget to surplus by 2012/13 as planned – which may mean cutting services and raising taxes – OR should they delay the return to surplus and maintain v and invest in infrastructure?

Read more »

South Australian unions are campaigning to pressure the State Government into reversing its Budget decisions which will cut more 3,700 jobs and have attacked the negotiated working conditions of South Australian public sector workers.

The unions’ believe that South Australia needs a real Labor Government that will put the interests of working people first, not one which legislates away the entitlements of its workforce.

The unions believe they have an important role to play in the community and in the wider political debate by advocating on behalf of workers when governments make decisions.

EMC was engaged late last year to run the campaign for SA Unions, using digital, advertising and a free media strategy

EMC has developed two television ads, the first of which began screening in early March. This sets the scene for the campaign, with SA Unions State Secretary Janet Giles talking to camera, outlining exactly what the government has done and saying, “It’s time the government put working people first.”

Read more »