The following appeared a few days ago.
Come in spinner…DOHA needs you
April 7, 2010 – 9:53 pm, by Croakey
The Department of Health and Ageing has put out a tender for “media liaison and issues management services”. It’s worth reading because it says quite a lot about how the Department views this role.
I saw no emphasis on or even mention of concepts like promoting greater transparency or fostering a more open and informed health debate. But of course it was probably naive to even search for such a thing; this job is all about keeping the lid on. Control, control, control – isn’t that what “issues management” is all about?
It could be fun to have a go at re-writing the evaluation criteria – what if DOHA asked for feedback from journalists or those who have been promoting more open government? We could provide comment on not only the consultant’s performance but related processes and the broader departmental culture around media engagement. Or perhaps even on the writing of the tender document…
Presumably the contract – due to commence on October 6, just a day after the final date for its awarding – will be worth a small fortune as it involves masses of work, including being the first point of contact for all media enquiries, handling media inquiries referred by the Ministers’/Parliamentary Secretary’s offices, supporting the Secretary and Departmental Executive, and serving as the Chief Medical Officer’s primary media adviser.
The full blog and some responses can be browsed here:
A quick visit to the DoHA site finds the following:
Provision of media liaison and issues management services.
Reference Number
RFT 277/0910
Title
Provision of media liaison and issues management services.
Description
The Department of Health and Ageing is seeking tenders from capable and experienced individuals or organisations to provide media management including critical issues across a range of matters for the Department. The successful tenderer will be the first point of contact for all media enquiries and issues for the Department. Tendering organisations will need to provide evidence of previous experience in journalism and management of sensitive media issues; and an understanding and appreciation of, and experience with, health, ageing, and sport (in the context of sport and health) media issues.
Full specification is found here:
So here we have the DoHA tender for help in ‘issues management’ – read spin and public disinformation service.
Of course they will have to work very hard to do better than the equivalent team at NEHTA!
I hope some enterprising soul with an ABN Registration will download a copy and send it along. I would love to browse the detail of the requirements!
David.
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