http://aspirecq.com/?p=72
First defence: ignore the issue and hope it goes away.
Second defence: state the official line and hope the issue goes away.
Third defence: oops (or similar 4 letter word), looks like the issue is not going away, start regretting taking actions one and two, looming public relations problem, scapegoats list to be prepared.
The Electoral Commission Queensland (ECQ) will possibly be taking defensive action three soon. Their response published in Saturday’s paper to the query about advice given to voters on preferential voting in the Rockhampton Regional Council elections demonstrates either a department that doesn’t conduct a thorough review of their operations or one that doesn’t believe it is accountable to the Queensland public.
Instead of going down the well trodden defence mechanism track that generates only more cynicism of Government, can I suggest the ECQ go direct to the fifth defence; be transparent and honest. If a communications error was made, as alleged by both voters and ECQ staff, then admit it and establish how wide spread the problem was. It is possibly not just the results on the Mayoral election that may be affected. In the divisions where there were 3 or more candidates for Councillor did voters receive correct information about their right to indicate a preference if they wanted to. Could the results in Divisions 4 and 6 be tainted? Where there is smoke there is fire. If Premier Newman wants to build some credibility in State Government, then conduct a quick but thorough review and have the truth come out. Especially since the Commission charter is to ensure the electoral system is free, honest and fair. Whistle blowers within ECQ are already telling others of the erroneous instructions they received. Combined with voters telling the media what happened to them, the public will draw their own conclusions and social media will amplify it. Lets avoid the forth defence of the lengthy, expensive process of forming an enquiry committee with a broad brief and 12 months to report back, basically burying the problem with boring jargon the media will hopefully lose interest reporting on. Mistakes are made, no one is perfect – instead of trying to bury them move immediately to the fifth defence and look to how the mistake can be rectified.