Sunday, 29 April 2012

'Keep Mining Strong' - Interest Group Interactions with Government

Based off the lectures given by Ian Ward in POLS2111: Politics and the Media, UQ


Do you think that the origins of the mining industry campaign, ‘Keep Mining Strong’, lie in the present government's electoral vulnerability or more broadly in the political influence that interest groups may achieve by 'going public'?

There were several factors at play in the controversial ‘Keep Mining Strong’ campaign run by the mining industry in opposition to the federal government’s proposed mining tax. Firstly, the people behind the original campaign perceived the government to be vulnerable to the opinion of its voters – meaning if they could sway the opinion of the public the government would have to cancel the tax. Secondly, the mining industry has enough money, and political influence gained through this financial power, that they had a reasonable chance of their campaign succeeding through a technique known as ‘going public’.

‘Going public’ is a form of venue shifting (Ward 2009:1039). It involves seeking to shift a decision on policy into a forum where a favourable outcome is more likely. In this case, the mining industry, through its use of high profile campaigns, shifted the ‘venue’ for the decision making, parliament, into the public arena, where they had a greater chance of influencing events. Under these circumstances, the government was unwilling to stone-wall the mining industry, as their public support was dwindling and they did not wish to lose their electoral majority through acts of which they knew the public would disapprove.

This easy “mobilisation of public support” (Juan Zhang 2010) is what has prompted the change of tactics in ‘insider’ interest groups – interest groups who already have the attention of political figures or prominent news corporations. Previously, media stunts and campaigns  - issue expansion techniques - were the domain of ‘outsider’ interest groups: interest groups without political clout or connections to policy makers.

Ultimately however, this is just a discussion of political theory and the policy making tactics employed by interest groups. The true reason behind the ‘Keep Mining Strong’ campaign was that the major backers of the mining industry didn’t like the tax the government was planning to implement, and had deep enough pockets to do something about it. This is evident since the campaign faded immediately after the mining tax was amended to be more suitable to the major financers of the mining industry.


References:
Ward, Ian. 2009. Lobbying as a public affair: PR and politics in Australia. USA: Creative Commons

Zhang, Juan. 2010. A Study on the Strategic Changes in Australian Lobbying Industry Since the 1970’s. China: Qinghai Normal University

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