Positive - Negative

It strikes me that the Liberal Party coalition in Federal Australia could turn its fortunes around by changing their public media (and for all I know ) private pronouncements from being continually negative about the government and instead start offering alternative positive messages. It could otherwise be assumed they have none.

Now I am not a supporter of the Liberal Party in Australia, quite the contrary but I am tired of Australian politics where you are either in the Government or in "Opposition". The problem is in the term"Opposition". Straight away it signals to politicians and the media who report on politics that if you are not part of the governing party then you must oppose anything they do. Now that is plain stupid as no one has everything right or everything wrong.

The recent 2020 Summit showed this up alarmingly where the official pronouncements of the "opposition party members" was to dismiss the whole affair as nothing new, or frivolous or a waste of time, energy and money. Those of the "opposition" and their party supporters that did participate contributed enormously and heaped much praise on the process and outcomes. Of course we all wait to see over the medium term how much of the outcomes come to fruition in official policy.

The Australian Labor Party had the same "opposition" mentality for many years. This translated into struggling results in the polls even though there was strong community dislike for the Howard Liberal government. It was only when Kym Beasley was replaced for the 3rd time that a change in attitude of the ALP was evident. The overriding messages from Kevin Rudd from the day he was elected leader of the party till when he won government and continuing now is not to be critical of others but to give positive messages of advice, of what is being done and what is yet to be done.

It's quite a different mind set and one I welcome . It appears to have also been grasped by the majority of the public.

In our own personal and working lives the same mind set can make a marked difference in how we are perceived, accepted, how we gain co-operation and confidence of others. It's closely related to the principal of showing respect to all other humans. It has taken me many years to become mindful of the benefits of positive response rather than critical, cynical, negative responses to others. And has cost me much in the past.

I am trying to project this concept to my staff to avoid conflicts. I would like to think that it will (or already does) work for my children, their children, their friends, and work colleagues. Its worth thinking about.