Australians are right to be concerned about the Fukushima disaster:
- we are the third biggest exporter of uranium (after Kazakhstan and Canada)
- all Australian governments to date have been against nuclear power generation.
So Australians very quickly identified, in the early stages of the Fukushima crisis, the flaws in the authorities’ responses.
What we should have seen was:
1. Strong leadership indicating good governance,
2. Well versed spokespeople,
3. Clear and complete messages, with accurate information including setting realistic expectations, and
4. Nimbleness and proactivity in producing a constant flow of information.
The Austalian media is very quick to spot poor PR and equally quickly appreciate good crisis PR management (like the Chilean mine disaster and theQantas A380 engine explosion).
Time will tell, with the inevitable inquires, whether the poor PR was symptomatic of much more serious and deep seated management and governance issues to do with a lack of safety precautions and procedures that may have contributed to the damage that has occurred.
