Players and Forces in Australian Public Affairs: Compare and contrast the nature and role of two (or three) organisations that play a significant role in contemporary Australian public affairs.

Power, Players and Forces in Australian Public Affairs: Compare and contrast the nature and role of two (or three) organisations that play a significant role in contemporary Australian public affairs.
Example one for the compare:
Compare and contrast the nature and role of two (or three) organisations
that play a significant role in contemporary Australian public affairs.
Organisational groups play a significant role as a vital link between the government and the opinions of the community, particularly during the time between elections. As mentioned in the lecture, ?Power, Players and Forces in Australian Public Affairs?, these groups are a valuable asset in a pluralist democracy. In the lecture, Paul outlined that ?participation by a wide range of groups and interests in decision making, produces a balance that results in the best policies and decisions for the greatest number of people?.
These interest groups form as a result of a pluralist democracy, a concept arising in the 20th century, which is charecterised by:
A democracy that seeks solutions by consensus, accommodation and compromise on differing views.
Power not centralised or monopolised, but dispersed amongst groups.
Groups competing for power and public support.
The current state of Australian politics therefore allows for organisational groups to allow the opinions of the larger public to be voiced. Two organisational groups that play a significant role in contemporary public affairs are GetUp Australia and the Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS).
How important do you believe the concept of pluralism to be on the influence of Australian political decision making?
GetUp Australia, an organisation some may be familiar with, is an independent community advocacy organisation, which, according to their website, ?aims to build towards a more progressive Australia, which values economic fairness, social justice and environmental sustainability?.
Some students may be familiar with a local campaign run by GetUp Australia in 2012. It involved a petition to advocate for more small bars in the Newcastle CBD. Did any of you sign the petition? Or are you familiar with other campaigns run by GetUp?
Whilst GetUp is predominantly concerned with advocating for a vast array of issues, ACOSS on the other hand defines itself as ?the peak body of the community services and welfare sector and the national voice for the needs of people affected by poverty and inequality?. ACOSS aims to develop and promote social, economic and environmentally responsible public policy and action by government, community and private sectors.
Instead of assisting, can these organisations distort the political systems? If so how?
Whilst gathering information from the websites of the organisations being reviewed, I was able to identify similarities and differences of the two, notably that Getup is concerned with promoting issues for the mass population whilst ACOSS is predominantly concerned with lower socio economic public. In the lecture Paul described organisational groups falling under three categories:
Promotional Group
Sectional Groups
Hybrid Groups
By viewing the organisations websites, what group do you think and ACOSS belong to?
groups have written submissions which can be viewed here:
Mining tax Ad
Finally, I want to touch on an opposite group to the previous two, Rising Tide, which is a promotional group. Promotional groups promote a particular cause and are not self interested, nor will they gain economic benefit.
The question I pose is, we have a variety of different public affairs groups for a reason and this is supposed to give balance to the outcome of policy making in government. However, who can have the loudest voice in changing the outcome of policy, those like the AMEC with backers of big corporations, or organisations such as Rising Tide and GetUp! who have the public support behind them?
Secondly I also pose the question, if the AMEC is a sectional group and Rising Tide is promotional, where do you think the IPA falls?