Initial consultation
Every engagement starts here. The initial consultation is a 50-minute session where I learn about your work, your organisation, or your situation, and you learn about the political world around it. Whether you run a business, lead an organisation, coordinate volunteers, create content, or are an individual trying to make sense of the world, this is where we begin.
Before the session:
To get the most out of our time, I encourage you to think about what brought you here and what you want to understand.
If you have materials that are relevant, such as a tender you are working on, a council decision you are responding to, a policy your staff raised, or anything else that prompted your enquiry, send them to me at least a week before the session. Anything received less than a week in advance cannot be guaranteed coverage in the session.
You can attend alone, or bring a business partner, a co-director, or a manager. Up to two more people are included in the initial consultation. Groups larger than three are quoted separately.
During the session:
We start with you. I ask about what you do, who you work with or serve, and what you want to understand. From there, I open up the political environment around your work or your situation. I connect things you see every day to political forces you may not have connected them to before. Why your customers or community members are behaving differently. Why your sector feels like it is shifting. Why your staff or volunteers are raising things they never mentioned three years ago. Why certain decisions at council, state, or federal level are affecting you. By the end you can see the political terrain your work sits on in a way you could not when you walked in.
After the session:
You go back to your work or your life seeing things you did not see before. Maybe you sit down with your lawyer and ask questions you would not have known to ask. Maybe you go to your marketing team with a different brief because you now understand the political values your audience holds. Maybe you call your accountant and ask about the political trajectory of a policy they mentioned, because you want to plan further ahead than the next quarter. Maybe you just think differently.
If you want to continue working with me, you choose the format that suits you: per-session, project, programme, or partnership. Or you leave it at the initial consultation.
Some samples cases:
A trucking company owner with 15 drivers comes in because his team keeps asking about the gig economy reforms and he does not understand why the rules around employment classification changed or what they mean for how he structures his fleet. Some of his drivers are employees, some are owner-drivers, and he is hearing that the distinction between the two is under political pressure he has not been tracking. We talk through the political history of the Transport Workers' Union campaigns that documented the exploitation of delivery and freight drivers, the deaths on the road that were linked to economic pressure on owner-drivers to work longer hours for less money, and the political momentum that turned those campaigns into legislative reform. We talk through what the chain of responsibility legislation means and why it exists: that every party in the supply chain, including the person who scheduled the load, is legally accountable for safety outcomes. He goes back to his next conversation with his drivers understanding what they are responding to and why. His next conversation with his accountant about fleet structure is different because he can ask about the political trajectory of employment classification, not just the current tax implications. His next conversation with his industry association is different because he understands the political forces they are navigating on his behalf.
A cafe owner comes in because her younger staff keep raising ethical sourcing and she does not know how to respond. We talk through the political and cultural shifts that made a generation of workers care about where coffee comes from, and how she can engage with her team from an informed position. She goes back to her next staff meeting with context she did not have before. The conversation with her team changes because she understands what is behind their questions.
A wedding planner comes in because her bookings have been declining year on year and she cannot figure out why her marketing is not working. We talk through the demographic and political forces reshaping the institution of marriage: why fewer people are marrying, why those who do want something different from what their parents had, how housing affordability and de facto legal equality changed the calculus for couples. She goes back to her marketing team with a completely different brief, because the problem was never the marketing. It was that her business was positioned for a market that is politically and demographically shifting beneath her.
A community sports club president brings her treasurer to the session because parents are asking about safeguarding and neither of them feel equipped to answer. We talk through the political history that created the child safety frameworks, why parental expectations shifted, and how they can lead their club's culture around safety from a position of understanding. They go back to their committee and explain the why behind the policies, and the committee engages with them differently.
An individual comes in because the world feels overwhelming and they want to understand the political dynamics behind what they are seeing in the news and in their community. We spend 50 minutes giving them a framework for making sense of it. They leave more equipped to engage with the world around them.
Pricing:
A$270 for a 50-minute session. Groups of more than three attendees are quoted separately.
Notes:
I do not lobby on your behalf, represent you to government, or provide legal or financial advice. My role is to build your political understanding so that your conversations with your own advisers, your team, and your community are better informed.