VICTRACK: For three years Rosemary provided issues management advice to State Government Authority, VicTrack, on a range of volatile issues affecting a diversity of stakeholders, including the proposed redevelopment of Camberwell Railway Station. In the Camberwell Station project, for example, our strategy has been to contain debate about the issue to the local area, engage in targeted stakeholder relationship-building and actively participate in the Council’s consultation process, whilst making it clear to the community that a commercially viable development is inevitable for that site. This involved extensive media management in a contentious environment, business-to-business networking and production of a regular Camberwell Station Community Update newsletter to support the project.
COUNTRY FIRE AUTHORITY: Five young firefighters lost their lives when fire engulfed a tanker at Linton during the bushfires of 1998. This tragedy proved to be a turning point in CFA’s history: the organisation had to learn hard lessons from the loss, and respond effectively, or risk mass departure of its 63,000 voluntary firefighting force and loss of public confidence. Axiom was appointed to develop and implement a comprehensive communications strategy, lasting for 18 months. For the duration of the Inquest, a rapid response issues management strategy was in place to counter any misinformation and defuse potential negativity. At the strategy level, Axiom worked closely with the CFA legal team to identify in advance and prepare for any potential negatives or barriers. At the tactical level, the first task involved producing a daily 4-5 page report on the Inquest’s proceedings emailed every afternoon to all 1200 brigades and any other interested party who registered on CFA’s website. The second, more challenging, task was to develop a Recovery Strategy, Safety First. A detailed communications plan was developed to cover each facet of this program and as each new initiative of Safety First was rolled out, it was supported by presentation materials and field kits, newsletters, training sessions and educational videos.
ELECTRICITY INDUSTRY PRIVATISATION: Rosemary first started work on this project in a very negative environment: the majority of media outlets were entrenched in their criticism, & the wider community was fearful of change. Also, the subject matter was dry, technical & hard to grasp. Our strategy was to break the process down into basic units of information, and take this out to Victorians at the grassroots. The Treasurer conducted a 12 town roadshow across suburban & regional Victoria. This was backed this up by a mobile display, advertorials & information mailouts via the electricity retailers. We armed Government backbenchers with an MP’s Tool Kit (comprising brochures, FAQ’s, fact sheets) for use in their own electorates. Our media strategy focused on the business angle - retirement of State debt - to change the perspective of coverage for the issue, which meant that media outlets gave the business angle precedence over general news. This was reflected in increasingly positive front page coverage at each asset sale announcement. Over 18 months, a lot of the ‘heat’ was taken out of this issue, allowing the Government to continue its program in a more neutral environment.