Issues Management

An issue is a gap between what you are doing and what others expect of you, which is likely to draw attention if nothing changes. It might be a pricing decision that customers will notice, a planning application that neighbours oppose, a government review that touches your sector, a pattern of complaints, or a change in community expectations about how your industry operates.

Unlike a crisis, an issue usually gives you time. The question is whether that time is used well. Handled early, many issues can be resolved, explained or reframed before they reach a journalist. Left alone, they tend to arrive at the worst possible moment.

We help you keep a short, current register of the issues that could affect your organisation, with a view on how likely each one is to surface and how much it would matter. The sources are practical: coverage and commentary, parliamentary and regulatory activity, complaints and enquiries, what frontline staff are hearing, and what competitors and peers are dealing with.

The register is only useful if someone reads it. We keep it brief and tie each entry to a decision: monitor, prepare, or act.

Not every issue needs a public response. Some are better resolved privately with the people affected. Some need a prepared position that is used only if asked. Some call for you to go first, because explaining a decision on your own terms is easier than defending it after someone else has framed it.

We give you a clear recommendation and the reasoning behind it, including the risks of each option. Where the issue touches legal, regulatory or employment matters, we work alongside your advisers so the communication fits their advice.

• a short statement of your position and the facts behind it
• answers to the hard questions, written before anyone asks them
• a list of the people who should hear from you first
• a named spokesperson, briefed and ready
• triggers that would move the issue up to crisis footing

For issues that will play out in parliament or a public inquiry, we can help prepare submissions, briefing notes for appearances and the public statements that sit around them.

Issues rarely arrive without warning. Common early signals include a rise in complaints on one topic, questions from a journalist who is “just looking into something”, a parliamentary question or inquiry that names your sector, a regulator’s consultation paper, a competitor’s difficult week, or staff raising the same concern through different channels. None of these is a crisis. Each is a reason to ask what you would say if the question became public tomorrow.

1. Scan

   We talk through the issues you can already see and look for those you may not have noticed yet.

2. Assess

   We rate each issue for likelihood and impact and agree which ones need attention now.

3. Prepare

   We prepare positions, answers and stakeholder approaches for the priority issues.

4. Review

   We revisit the register at agreed intervals and adjust as issues fade or grow.

Issues often have a local dimension: a state regulator, a council decision, a federal inquiry. Read how we work in Melbourne, in Canberra, where parliamentary and policy issues are often decided, and in Sydney.

If an issue escalates, crisis communications takes over. Issues involving communities or interest groups often call for stakeholder and community engagement, and longer-term perception work sits under reputation management.

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