Wilkinson Butler awarded NSW Premier, Chris Minns, Communicator of the Year for 2025. The surveyed public equally chose Anthony Albanese and Pauline Hanson.
The surveys are here: https://lnkd.in/g9SxMUSX
This is how Mumbrella reported it:
Anthony Albanese and Pauline Hanson are Australia’s best communicators according to a representative survey of Australians conducted both before and after the Bondi shootings.
The survey – commissioned by communications agency Wilkinson Butler and conducted by DemosAU – found that Hanson had jumped up the rankings after the terror attack, level pegging with the Prime Minister.
Researchers first queried 1103 Australians in November. Then, after the terror attack in Bondi on December 14, the researchers conducted another wave of testing (1030 people) from 13-15 January.
The two groups were asked to “name the Australians, with a public profile, who you think are great communicators in 2025.”
The surveys were conducted online and people who did not consume any news content were excluded by the researchers.
Because the query was open-ended, the researchers ended up with a long list, topped by Albanese with 17% of respondents listing him as a great communicator in both groups.
In elaborating why they thought he was so good at communicating, people emphasised:
– Clarity and simplicity of language
– Authenticity
– Calmness
– Leadership
A quote given by a respondent was “He has a calm demeanour and ensures he speaks thoroughly”.
Hanson did well in the first wave (11%) and then even better (17%) in the second. People rated the founder of One Nation a great communicator again because of her perceived authenticity, courage, and tendency to talk straight.
“Ms Hanson seems to be ahead of the game,” said one respondent. “She seems to understand what the people want.”
Wilkinson Butler — whose co-founder and chair, Peter Wilkinson, is a frequent contributor to Mumbrella – used the survey as the basis for its “Communicator of the Year”, which was awarded to NSW Premier Chris Minns.
Like Hanson, Minns’ rating jumped following the Bondi attack. He moved from a 1% rating (which placed him in the communications peloton) to 3%, among the top 6 communicators.
He was chosen by Wilkinson Butler because of his authenticity which “conveyed a balance of outrage and empathy with clarity and consistency.”
“Being a Premier is a tough job where you must communicate several different messages daily, and Minns stands above as an exemplar who cuts through the noise and speaks directly to the audience,” Peter Wilkinson wrote of Minns.
“He clearly listens, and that is reflected in how his communications connect with his audience.”
The margin of error for the survey is around 4% – meaning the researchers are confident their findings are representative of the whole of Australia plus or minus 4%. Hanson could be perceived, for example, to be slightly more or less effective a communicator than the Prime Minister by the whole population.
