Hi there! Haven’t been in touch for a while, how are things?
Life is busy here in Australia! It’s all go at the moment as at the time of writing (19th August), the federal election takes place on Saturday.
The main race is between the Labour party and the Liberals. It has been an interesting time for Labour who ousted its leader and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd not long ago, and replaced him with Australia’s first ever female Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
The Liberals have a new leader too, Tony Abbott who is a very animated and somewhat of a character so it the lead up and the campaigns have been more about the personalities and their clashing and being unwilling to debate unless on their terms than it has about the overall election. The campaigns have become somewhat of a farce with Labour and the Liberals using their speeches to take a slug at one another.
So interesting times ahead as well as big issues on a national broadband network, a mining tax and paid parental leave on the agenda.
From a marketing perspective it has been interesting to see how the parties have been using marketing and social media as part of their campaigns. Neilson did some research and released its analysis of social media discussions around Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott. Read the article here if you want to know more.
So what else has been going on here…. Well the economy has been reported as being strong but the last week or so has seen a huge outlet chain the ‘DFO’ fighting against liquidation and a number of smaller high street businesses potentially on the verge of going under so we are not out of the woods yet.
I’ve been working with the CIM Australia Chair to try and get some momentum going with members here in Australia and we sent out an updated newsletter and a survey which I am just collating the results for as well as planning our next newsletter.
Not much to report at the moment but next time I write the election will be over and it will be interesting to see how the new Labour era or new Government is doing….
Bye for now