Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Australian Politics and Policy
bureaucracy during past decades due to some government agencies engaging staff
with links to promotional groups, or with a personal commitment to their cause. 96
Promotional groups are often more concerned with advancing a particular
issueorcause.Advocacygroupsareatypeofpromotionalgroupthatseektoraise
the status or profile of a section of society seen to be disadvantaged or deprived
–socially,politicallyormaterially.Promotionalgroupstendtofocusoncausesto
advance the interests of society as a whole, and speak along policy lines rather than
as a representative. 97
Promotional groups can be further categorised into single-issue and multi-issue
groups. This distinction is important, because promotional groups appear to be
conflated as ‘single-issue groups’ by government and policy makers, when in fact
their concerns can cross a breadth of matters within their cause or promotion. For
example, the WEL, which was formed ‘to change social attitudes and practices which
discriminate against women’ and works to protect the rights of Australian women,
could easily be dismissed as a ‘single-issue group’. However, the WEL campaigns on a
number of issues of relevance to women, including ending violence against women,
health and democratic participation. 98
On a cautionary note, at times promotional pressure groups may be proxies
for more vested interests of sectional organisations. 99 For example, the Alliance
of Australian Retailers was a group ostensiblyopposedtotheplainpackagingof
cigarettes because the policy would damage the business of small retailers. It was
later found to be an ‘astroturf ’ group (i.e. a fake ‘grassroots’ organisation) as it
was funded by tobacco companies Philip Morris, British American Tobacco and
Imperial Tobacco Australia. 100
Other types
Single-issue pressure groups focus on raising the profile of a single cause or issue,
perhapsaspartofasocialmovement.Socialreformmovementsseektochange
norms rather than push for radical change, whereas radical movements seek to
change the way society is structured. Groups and movements can be temporary,
whether short-term or semi-permanent, emerging as needed. Fusion refers to when
two or more groups or movements join for a common purpose. 101
In the political sphere, the approach of single-issue pressure groups can be
seen as a ‘thin edge of the wedge’, as they concentrate on one particular issue
oroneaspectofamorecomplicatedissue,andtheymaynotbeintegratedinto
either the party system or the machinery of government. They do not become
96 Warhurst 1984, 20–4.
97 Vromen, Gelber and Gauja 2009, 239.
98 Women’s Electoral Lobby n.d.
99 Matthews 1997, 271; Matthews 1980, 452–3.
100 Davies 2010.
101 Cole and Foster 2001.
446