Strategic positioning remains relatively underexplored in public relations scholarship, and is often referred to in marketing terms. The positioning of political parties and leaders is a growing area of interest in positioning theory, wherein strategic positioning is a discursive practice that is invariably linked to issues of power.

2. Introduction
• Using strategic environmental and social
responsibility discourses in political speeches, two
Australian political leaders worked to position factors
related to climate change policy in Australia.
• Positioning political parties and leaders is a growing
area of interest in Positioning Theory (van
Langenhove & Harre, 1999) - strategic positioning is a
discursive practice that is invariably linked to issues
of power.

3. Methodology
• A case study employing the qualitative method of
positioning analysis (e.g. James, 2014).
• Positioning analysis permits an analysis of texts
through the core positioning theory concepts of
rights and duties and local moral orders.
• 22 political speech transcripts delivered by former
Australian Labor Party PM Julia Gillard, and former
Liberal/conservative Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

4. What we found
• Despite having different discourse strategies both
constructed the environment and climate change
primarily in economic terms;
• Despite her duty to act in the best interests of the
environment and Australia, Gillard/Gillard
Government were delegitimized by Abbott’s
Positioning strategy
• Climate change as an economic risk achieved ‘truth’
status that took precedence over environmental risks

5. What we found (Gillard)
“Putting a price on carbon is a big change for our country; and
most of the money raised from the carbon price will be used to
fund tax cuts, pension increases and higher family payments”
(Gillard, 2011).
• Gillard articulated a ‘clean energy future’ that
promulgated the economic, environmental & social
benefits of a carbon price; positioned Australia as a
world leader.
• Social responsibility to Australians – attempted to
bridge economic and environmental concerns

6. What we found (Abbott)
“The Coalition’s plan means a fair go for pensioners – without a
carbon tax. And tax cuts funded from savings – not from a
carbon tax” (Abbott, 2011).
• Abbott foregrounded the economic risks of a ‘carbon
tax’ over the risks of climate change.
• These discourses a) drew on pre-existing fears about
globalisation, the GFC, and job insecurity and
b) appealed to the individualist ideology of many
Australians.
• Removal of the carbon ‘tax’

7. Study implications: Australia & global
climate change
• 1st nation to legislate pricing of carbon emissions.
• 1st developed nation to repeal carbon pricing
legislation - carbon emissions are currently rising.
• What is Australia’s social responsibility to the
environment beyond its own geographical borders?
• In hypermodern times (where the context for action
by politicians is fluid and contestable) the rights and
duties associated with taking positions are likewise
fluid and contestable.

8. Study Implications: The role of power
in public relations positioning efforts
• An entity’s rights equate with its power to position,
or to assign positions to others.
• If one doesn’t have the right, or doesn’t construct
the right to position, one lacks positioning power.
• Using Smudde and Courtright’s (2010) three
dimensions of power in PR, i.e. hierarchical,
rhetorical and social, the discursive articulation of
each of these power dimensions played a major part
in a) constructing both Gillard and Abbot’s right to
position on climate change, and b) the social
construction of perceptions of legitimacy.

9. Conclusion: The role of PR positioning
power in hypermodern times
• A PR positioning theoretical approach:
• Focuses on rights, duties and local moral orders
• Can guide the examination of actions related to social
responsibility in hypermodern PR contexts that are fluid
and contestable
• Provides a framework for questioning:
– What rights are being taken up by an entity or assigned to others
– What duties are associated with discursively constructed positions
– How local moral orders are operating within hypermodernity i.e.
How and why contexts for action are mobilised through the
construction, deconstruction and reconstruction of meaning
– What types of power are being enacted and how such enactment
works to shape and shift socio-cultural discourses.

10. Thank you
Deborah Wise deborah.wise@newcastle.edu.au
Melanie James melanie.james@newcastle.edu.au
• Abbott, T. (2011b, 13 July). Remarks at the Melbourne Wholesale Fish Markets, West
Melbourne, Australia. [Transcript]. Retrieved from
http://www.tonyabbott.com.au/LatestNews/Speeches/tabid/88/articleType/Art
icleView/articleId/8195/Remarks-at-the-Melbourne-Wholesale-Fish-Markets- West-
Melbourne.aspx
• Gillard, J. (2011a, 9 July). 'The courage to be new', Speech to the New South Wales
Branch of the ALP State Conference, Sydney, Australia. [Transcript]. Retrieved from
http://www.pm.gov.au/press-office/courage-be-new-speech-new-south- wales-branch-
alp-state-conference-sydney
• James, M. (2014). Positioning theory and strategic communications: A new approach to
public relations research and practice. London: Routledge.
• Smudde, P. M., & Courtright, J. L. (2010). Public relations and power. In R. L. Heath (Ed.),
The Sage Handbook of Public Relations (pp. 177-189). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.