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Business Council of Australia backs Zali Steggall’s climate change bill for 2050 net zero target

Adam Morton, The Guardian, 26 January 2021

A business group of mining, retail, manufacturing, banking and energy bosses have pledged their support towards independent MP Zali Steggall's climate change legislation. The Business Council of Australia used a parliamentary submission to say the proposed plan is ...

Twitter launches ‘Birdwatch’ to combat misinformation

Ben Collins and Brandy Zadrozny, NBC News, 26 January 2021

Twitter has unveiled a feature intended to strengthen its efforts to counter misinformation and disinformation by allowing users to discuss and provide context to tweets they believe are misleading or false. Birdwatch will also let users identify information in Tweets they believe is misleading by writing notes that provide informative context....

Top Five Predictions for 2021

Top Five Predictions for 2021

Wayne Burns

As we do each year, here is our recap of the big trends and developments that defined the practice of corporate public affairs in 2020, and our Top Five Predictions for 2021.

Google is giving $3 million to news orgs to fact-check vaccine misinformation

Sarah Scire, NiemanLab, 12 January 2021

Google announced it will be giving (US) $3 million to bolster the efforts of news and fact-checking organisations to combat misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine. The Google News Initiative announcement brings the grand total flowing to organisations debunking lies about the pandemic to (US) $11 million. Google's fund is open to news...

Reflecting on 2020, and what challenges await practitioners in 2021?

Reflecting on 2020, and what challenges await practitioners in 2021?

Very Public Affairs Pod, Centre for Corporate Public Affairs, 09 December 2020

In the final episode of Very Public Affairs for 2020, the Centre's Executive Director Wayne Burns discusses how corporations have fared this year, how the public's level of trust has changed, how will corporate leadership continue to change in 2021, and what should be on our radar for the year...

Big tech, science communications, and corporate values during COVID

Big tech, science communications, and corporate values during COVID

24 November 2020

On In Conversation, we discuss the recent moves in the United States to regulate big tech, the importance of science communications and what lessons can be learned, and how can the corporate public affairs function adapt to working from home.

Joining us for this episode are two experienced...

Australia’s newspaper ownership is among the most concentrated in the world

Nick Evershed, The Guardian, 14 November 2020

Ownership of Australia's newspapers is one of the most concentrated in the world but changes in how metrics are collected is making it difficult to get an updated picture. The 2016 'Who Owns the World's Media?' study on media ownership and concentration found in 2011 Australia had the most concentrated newspaper industry of...

BlackRock CEO backs mandatory climate reporting, urges U.S. action

Simon Jessop & Matthew Green, Reuters, 10 November 2020

Larry Fink, chief executive of the world's largest asset manager BlackRock has urged the United States to replicate the UK's recent move to make the reporting of corporate risk related to climate change...

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Is social media ready for a COVID-19 vaccine?

Rebecca Heilweil, Vox, 09 November 2020

Pfizer and BioNTech announced this week they had developed a vaccine that was more than 90 per cent effective against COVID-19. However, misinformation is already circulating on social media. Since the start of the pandemic, social media platforms have faced pressure to combat conspiracy theories about COVID-19 vaccines, and now with a vaccine...

A rushed move to virtual AGMs would disempower shareholders

Ian Ramsay & Lloyd Freeburn,, The Conversation, 03 November 2020

Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg seems to have backed down from his push to make virtual annual general meetings permanent. The draft legislation that would have allowed investors and others just 12 days to comment on the legislation has been extended by seven days after the process was... 

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