Exclusive Global Government Forum research reveals five pillars of a modern civil service

Those of us who spend our working days interacting with Government officials sometimes want to tear our hair out.  The ‘public service’ sometimes seems anything but a service.  More often a closed shop with fixed views.

Want to 'see' what's it like to live with dementia?

We are lucky at The PR Company – we work for some really worthwhile causes and organisations.

Let the story be told - the case against Brian Tamaki

We don’t often talk about the good work our clients do (we’ll do more of that in future), but we want to start by introducing you to Sunita Torrance and her performance partner, Daniel Lockett.

What do we really know about cults?

We’ve all heard about Gloriavale, and those of us old enough will remember Centrepoint.  But what constitutes a cult?  What makes a person join one?  And how many Kiwis are actually members of these groups – a world most of us only encounter in a news story or in a movie?

How might Budget 2024 affect you?

Disclaimer: I’m certainly not an economist.  I failed School C maths.  But even I know yesterday’s Budget was a bit of a non-event. 

How Cabinet Ministers learn on the job

Government ministers operate in a complex, haphazard and changeable political environment. There has been little systematic focus on how individuals get to grips with these challenges on-the-job.

Our already tiny media landscape is about to get even smaller

The closure of Newshub later this year means our already tiny media landscape gets even smaller, making it even harder for many organisations to get the publicity cut-through they need.

Use these simple tips and tricks to rapidly improve your organisation’s comms and PR

What are we grateful for? 

No clear air at Parliament for a while yet 

Last month, referring to election night, I said “Thank God it’s over!” 

The officials are waiting too 

While we wait for the new Government to be formed and for Ministerial warrants to be appointed, officials are in the same boat. 

Thank God it’s over! 

It was getting to the point where I didn’t care who won – just as long as it was over and we could – finally – get to think about something other than the election and the tale of the Two Chrises. 
 

Are you a lobbyist? 

If you lead an industry association, as many of our clients do, you well may be.  And if you are deemed a lobbyist you may well have to adhere to the voluntary code of conduct for third party lobbyists which the Ministry of Justice is considering. 
 

Here we go again 

A month or so ago, I wrote about the Ministry of Education spending $1 million on a promotional campaign that didn’t have any quanitifiable objectives.

Is our media going too far?

Love him (and plenty do, according to the breakfast radio show ratings) or loathe him (and he certainly is polarising), you have to give Mike Hosking the award for being the National Party’s best spin doctor.

It’ll only cost you $1 million!

My company has a request. Please give us $1 million dollars to run a promotional and awareness campaign for you. And, secondly, please don’t complain when it doesn’t produce any tangible results. It wasn’t meant to, anyway. Yeah right! But that’s exactly the position our Minister of Education, Jan Tinetti, found herself in recently when...

It’s not a good look among our political class

Some of you may have seen me interviewed on 6pm’s 1News last night.

A comms lesson we should all heed

One size does not fit all. When it comes to all your stakeholders, a homogenous communications and engagement approach, often centred around your digital platform(s), doesn’t always work.

Let’s stamp out the cronyism

Thank you for smoking If you’ve ever seen that movie, Thank You For Smoking, you’ll have received a light-hearted insight into what lobbyists in the US get up to on behalf of clients. While that movie was a bit of a spoof, it’s also not entirely removed from the truth. Professional lobbyists are big business...

Lessons for the comms team

Senior Stuff journalist Andrea Vance recently wrote an insightful piece entitled “Why ‘have your say’ exercises are meaningless”.  It was about a comms and engagement initiative run by Wellington City Council.

Jacinda Ardern steps down: What’s in it for you?

That’s the question many of our clients are asking now that Jacinda Ardern has announced her resignation as Prime Minister – what does this mean for our business, how will our industry/sector be impacted by what, very possibly, will herald a change of government later this year. Ardern’s popularity as preferred PM was probably all...

Wow. What A Year!

Don’t know about you, but we’ve had a great one. We lost one staff member to Australia and gained another – welcome aboard, Hanna. And we extended our network of essential sub-contractors who help us keep the plates spinning. We also celebrated James’ graduation from the Public Relations Institute of NZ’s prestigious Accredited in Public...