The causes of public opinion against the Australian Government
Discuss about the Shark culling in Western Australia and subsequent public relations.
Among the many definitions of crises management, one can define it as an organizational process aimed at dealing with unexpected disruptive events and occurrences that are a threat to the continuity of organization or its stakeholders. When dealing with Crises, the elements of the crises must be determined and the common ones being a threat to the organization handled first, some the elements include; the element of surprise and a short decision time. Moreover, in managing crises, an organization can access ay potential threats and look for ways of avoiding them. Crisis managed is a systematic discipline whereby threats are dealt with before they can occur, during their occurrence and after they have also occurred. It requires the position of skills and knowledge to help in the identification, assessments, and understanding on how to cope with serious situations and more so from the point of the first occurrence of recovery procedures.
In the recent past, the Australian Government has been experiencing a crisis with sharks where their ware incidence of shark attacks on human resulting in human marine conflict. To curb the situation at hand the government introduced a policy called the Western Australian shark cull which is mostly used term for the previous policy on the fishing and unnecessary kills of the big sharks by the use of drum lines fitted with baits at the beaches. This policy was developed after an incident that led to the death of seven individuals at the Western Australia coastline back in 2014. It was developed mainly to cater for the safety of human swimmer from attack by sharks.
Michael usher’s article clearly shows that cause as to why the public to turn against the Australian Government was due to the Western Australian shark cull policy that was implemented to kill sharks in the vicinity of swimming beaches. People demonstrated through National public demonstration opposing the policy by the Government which in turn attracted international attention.
The people’s voice to protect their sharks and marine life was heard in the year 2014 when the government decided to burn the use of Drumline bait after the recommendations by the Western Australian body responsible for environmental protection on the stoppage on the use of Drumline for killing sharks which by then had caused a lot of marine pollution. Despite the burning of the Drumlines the Government still permitted its use in cases where sharks seemed to pose a dangerous public safety threat
Government’s efforts in managing the crisis
The previous Australian Government used the Drumlines to kill large sharks but it was later abandoned by the new Government. The new Government comes up with a new strategy whereby two marine areas have been established, stretching 1km offshore from Quinns to Warnbro in the Perth metropolitan region, and Backwoods Shoreline to Cape Naturaliste and Prevelly in the state’s south. Sharks bigger then 3m observed here are to be chased and slaughtered by proficient anglers.
Another elective system utilized by the legislature was shoreline watch and spotter flying machine generally utilized for contrasting option to mesh or sending drum lines to ensure well-known swimming shorelines. Shark obstruction was additionally extremely compelling as they offered finish security and were viewed as more naturally cordial as they generally maintained a strategic distance from bycatch.
The deployed programs to control sharks used nets and drums lines as well as an effective in diminishing the frequency of these fish assaults at the secured shorelines henceforth lessening the human marine clashes.
In the year (1984) Grunig and Hunt suggested four model of public relation that described fields diverse practices that are applicable to the management as well as well organizational activities and practices. They act as guidelines for the creation of programs, ways of strategizing. Below are the four models developed by Grunig and Hunt:
- Model for the Press agentry
- A model of Public information
- A model concerning Two- way asymmetrical
- A model of Two- way symmetrical
The Australian Government has been having crises dealing with the Public as a result of the shark cull. Although the recent Government tried to come up with a different strategy to curb the issue, the below model of public relation model would have been very helpful to the Australian Government when dealing with the public.
Much the same as the name recommends public information model underscores on keeping up and upgrading the picture of an association basically by coursing significant and important data among the intended interest group/open. public relations experts/specialists rely upon the official statement and press briefs, news, video or some other recorded correspondence frequently guided at the media to flow data about their brand among people in general. This model is mainly used by the non-profit organizations, education institutions, government agencies and some other corporations.
Having said the above, we can see that the Australian Government is really desperate to solve the shark cull crises by coming up with different strategies and by the help of public information model it would be easy to relay relevant information the public so that they can gain the public trust. (Galloway, 2005)
Four models of Public Relations (Grunig and Hunt 1984)
The Australian government can use the public information model to relay honest and relevant information to the public to maintain the good relationship. The information relayed could save lives by restricting people from using dangerous beaches and also by creating awareness on the importance of keeping off some of the dangerous coastline beaches. (Parsons, 2008)
The use of the public information model could also be helpful when sending educational materials like videos to the public to teach them on how to maintain personal safety at the beach and to minimize chances of shark attacks. The videos or program could entail safety material like wearing shark or even the attachments shark deterrents, for instance, electronic shark shields, or dressing in camouflaged wetsuits that help to reduce the visibility of the swimmers to sharks when in water. Since the public relation model is also technology oriented, it could be used to channel a number of shark prevention measure through the following ways;
Through a press release, the government could convey important information to the public by alerting them on keeping offshores with shark attacks.
Through the use of recorded video, the government could convey educational slides and other technology-based solution to reduce the incidence of shark attacks and reduce the crises in the long run. (Stepinska,, 2014)
Maintaining a good image is the dream of any Government or any other statutory body and The Australian Government is one of the Governments, it has managed to curb the cries more than any other country in the world thereby maintain a good public relation
The Australian Government can shed light to the whole world through its management of crisis between the human and the marine. Since the human life comes first the Australian Government once introduced some measures that really tarnished its image to the Whole world but eventually through proper mechanism and measures today other countries are learning from them as they solved an equation that many countries could not. (Crandall & Parnell, 2013)
The success of shark cull come at a cost that the Australian Government paid when it comes to serious criticizing by the public and international bodies. Although the Government was trying to save a human life they were causing a lot of environmental pollution from the floating shark bodies hence causing a crisis by the public.
Other affected countries have learned a lot from the Western Australia shark cull as they can now deploy the most appropriate method to save lives at the same time preserve the marine hence balancing the ecosystem.
Among the Countries affected by shark attacks in South Africa which had 16 shark attacks in between the year 1940 and 1960 where it is reported that there were fatal attacks and 11 of them resulted to serious injuries. Apart from only four dangerous attacks at these beaches, for over three decades after installation of these nets, there have been no other similar attacks. Other countries include USA, Brazil, Reunion Island (France), etc. that are using the modern environment-friendly measures to keep the shark away from people.
The Modern Governments can also use the right channel of public relation to maintaining their reputation with the public. (Carl & Hazleton, 2006) Crises management also plays a very important role in maintaining a reputation in the digital age. The government should deploy the best way to manage crisis occurrence as well as identification on the different crisis types since the different crisis needs to have differences in terms to strategies employed to manage them that would eventually determine the relationship between the government and the public. It’s essential for an open and consistent flow of information throughout the management hierarchy. This facilitates a successful flow of information useful for crisis management. depending on the model used by the government to solve crises.
References
Carl, B., & Hazleton, V. (2006). Public relations in a new age. research gate, 1- 11.
Crandall, W. R., & Parnell, J. A. (2013). Crisis Management: Leading in the New Strategy Landscape. Chicago: SAGE Publications, Inc; Second edition.
Galloway, C. (2005). Public relations issues and crisis management. london: Vic, Thompson Social Science Press.
Parsons, P. J. (2008). Ethics in public relations a guide to best practice. LONDON: parson publishers.
Stepinska,, A. (2014). Media and Communication in Europe. Berlin: Logos Berlin press.
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