Solidarity

Last week we learned that the new head of the Workplace Authority, Barbara Bennett, was not hired because she is capable of protecting workers, but because she fit the advertising agencies’ criteria for a propaganda “figurehead”.

Now we know that her face on the screen hasn’t done anything to convince people that job insecurity is a good thing. An Essential Research study of voters’ reactions to the ads found they backfired spectacularly:

The fundamental problem with this ad is that in its attempt to diffuse the negative perception of the IR laws, which is now deep-seated in the community, it is actually strengthening those perceptions.

And that study was conducted before revelations that a man who appears as a “concerned parent” in one of the ads is actually a boss with a record of ripping off his young workers. Daniel Richardson (pictured right) has been accused of underpaying an apprentice by thousands of dollars. His attempt to deny the apprenticeship was rebutted by publication of the apprenticeship contract (pdf), and his attempt to deny underpayment was undermined by other young men coming forward with similar stories — including Richardson’s son.

Imagine how bad the results will be next time Essential Research studies the impact of Howard’s propaganda campaign?

Update: I forgot to mention that Richardson relies on the bad boss’s refrain: “[W]e actually helped him out. … I thought we were actually helping him out.” The ungrateful wretch, expecting to be paid for his work. Doesn’t he know that, as Tony Abbott put it, “[A] bad boss is a little bit like a bad father or a bad husband. Not withstanding all his or her faults, you find that he tends to do more good than harm”?

Elsewhere: Larvatus Prodeo, An Onymous Lefty, Surfdom, and Blogocracy.