“For too long some groups in our society have been failed by those with the power to protect them, stand up for them, and ensure they are given a fair shake of any type of sauce bottle,” writes political columnist ANDREW HUGHES. 

“The title ‘Let the sunshine in’ for this final report is deliberate. 

“It responds to widespread disaffection with the performance of governments and rising expectations that our politicians and their officials be more accountable and transparent in their dealings, and behave with integrity.” 

So wrote Peter Coaldrake, author of the 2022 Let the Sunshine in: Review of Culture and Accountability in the Queensland Public Sector.

In recent years brand management of governments by their political masters has gone into domains usually occupied by the large multi-nationals.

Fiercely protective, at times brand fanatical, and willing to play it hard on anyone who is a perceived threat to the big three: leader, party and government. 

It is this brand love that parties and candidates in the modern era need to pay close attention to because as more and more electoral results are showing, people expect more. 

An example of brand protection? When a report or review is released. In the first term of the federal Labor government that was 70 reports or reviews. That’s a lot of great ideas waiting for implementation, but also a lot of work to be done on making government better. 

Locally, there have been some good reviews and reports, some not so. Some are either released too late to make a difference for victims, or written by a career-hungry and aspirational public servant for the pleasure of a political master, less the frank and fearless objective which should rigorously guide any document produced by a public servant. 

For too long some groups in our society have been failed by those with the power to protect them, stand up for them, and ensure they are given a fair shake of any type of sauce bottle. 

And yet there are those in our community who are putting their hands up at great reputational risk to speak up for these groups. Some proof? Read the work in this publication by Hugh Selby. 

Hugh is one of the most ethical (therefore rarest) lawyers you’d ever meet. 

His work on responses to the various law and justice ACT government reports has given many hope in a space often forgotten about. Just because you are in the big house doesn’t mean you cease to exist. 

Okay, so what’s the lesson here in a marketing and brand sense? Reports and reviews are fertile ground for the creation of movements. So many of these of late haven’t stopped anger and frustration on injustices, they’ve instead poured fuel on the fire. 

A review or report is nothing if there is no consequence. 

Yet so often payments or new jobs are made to bad people to sweep issues under carpets or away in the tsunami of daily multi-platform media feeds. 

The Robodebt Report? So little done, and yet so many impacted. The reports into the health system failings here? So little done. The Nixon Review into gender equality at the ANU? Name names and pass them on to the AFP. 

So often governments and leaders dismiss these things. The crisis management 4D’s strategy seemed to be written by a narcissist: deny, denigrate, delay, defend. 

Political movements are fast, dynamic and can be created in seconds. Not all are crackers, cookers or radicals. Some are those who have had enough. Independents from the main. For now. 

And you may even recognise them. They are the type of people who turned a movement into a party, a party to government, then to making differences. To change lives. 

But they started off as the people who wanted to let the sunshine in. Winter is nearly over. 

Dr Andrew Hughes lectures at the ANU Research School of Management, where he specialises in political marketing.