Lobbying defined and observed

The critical and most obvious component of lobbying is the interaction an entity has with government. The executive, parliament and bureaucracy are the key players in the field. On the opposing side, to extend a sporting analogy, are the lobbyists &ndash; who are identified or labelled, singularly or plurally, by a variety of names: pressure groups, policy consultants, tariff consultants, public relations consultants, interest groups, special interest groups, industrial and professional associations, government relations managers, public affairs managers and Lloyd&rsquo;s qualified term, the &lsquo;political lobbyist&rsquo; .All these nomenclatures require further explanation &ndash; some are used interchangeably, others are now an historical term only, some fall from the common language only to reappear at a later date. Of all, the oldest and most widely recognised is lobbyist and lobbying. Lloyd (1989) states that the term &lsquo;lobby agent&rsquo; was first used in Westminster in the mid-17th century. In the United States Schriftgiesser (1951) writes that the famous American journalist H L Mencken, the Sage of Baltimore, traced the first use of the word lobby, as we currently understand it, to Washington DC in 1829. At that time the term lobby-agent was in use but it was shortened, by journalists, to lobbyist by 1832.It has been suggested that the concept of lobbying &ndash; of seeking influence among the powerful &ndash; is as old as government e itself. Lloyd (1989) cites examples of lobbying from the Old and New testaments &ndash; the most famous pressure group being those who petitioned Pontius Pilate to crucify Jesus Christ!In the US the activities of lobbying were recognised before the term was coined when, according to Schriftgeisser (1951), &lsquo;a little gang of painted &ndash;up merchants (who) pushed British tea into the salt water of Boston harbor&rsquo; (p4).So the pedigree of lobbying activities is long and colourful. As the western form of parliamentary democracy has evolved and expanded among nations it seems that lobbying has been ever present on this journey. It is by its activities, its parts, that we can define and recognise lobbying most clearly and view the changes.<br /

Looking at lobbying

A criticism of lobbying has been its clandestine nature, its &lsquo;wheeling and dealing behind closed doors with the movers and shakers of the political party in government&rsquo; (Harrison, 2011, p.870), the behind doors scenes featuring a network of old connections. In some instances, this was the case but as is evidenced by the chapters in this book this style is now decades out of practice and the stereotype is undeserved

Media relations training: the shifting focus

Media relations, and training in this area, is now an integral aspect of the public relations practitioner\u27s role in most organizations. This training, often provided by former journalists now operating as media consultants. can cost hundreds, up 10 thousands of dollars a day. There has been a shift in the focus of this education in the last few decades to include different strategies and to address changing technologies. This paper tracks the shifts in the main objectives of these programs and includes interviews with trainers regarding media training.<br /

The 1947 bank nationalisation scheme : a prehistory of issues management?

Industry-wide crises emanating from legislative proposals are rare in Australia, and can be classed as once in a generation events, and so merit consideration and research. Currently, there is one such debate over the Mineral Resources Rent Tax, proposed by Prime Minister&rsquo;s Julia Gillard&rsquo;s government. Prior to this, the closest comparable event was the 1974 proposal for the establishment of a universal health insurance scheme. The 1947 proposal, by the Ben Chifley-led Labor Government, aimed to nationalise Australia&rsquo;s banks, and it brought a crisis of massive proportions to Australia&rsquo;s conservative financial service industry. Although the High Court of Australia finally found Chifley&rsquo;s proposed legislation unconstitutional, the banks realised they must win in the court of public opinion, generate press coverage in favour of their position, and help defeat the Labor Government at the 1949 election. At the time, and for some decades to come, this was the most expensive and largest public relations campaign waged in Australia. After such a campaign there could be few Australians who could claim that they had not been exposed to the powers of public relations in a modern world. This paper looks at what can be learned from the banks&rsquo; collective response to the proposed nationalisation. It does so by applying contemporary issues management evaluation techniques