Former Greens staffer Colin Jacobs offers a glimpse into the life of a parliamentary media adviser — one of the most influential denizens in the corridors of power.
Your alarm goes off at 5am. As you slowly come to groggy consciousness, you feel the sense of subdued panic that greets you every morning. You regret staying up until midnight waiting for the online papers to change over, but after watching Lateline you were too wired to sleep anyway. Before you even open your eyes, you try to make sense of what the radio announcer is saying as you reach for your phone to scan the headlines. The professional in you hopes there is a big story and you can start the ring around of breakfast and talkback radio. Another part of you longs for a quiet day and a tap of the snooze button.
Welcome to the life of a parliamentary media adviser. The people who live this lifestyle — if you could call it that — are among the most numerous and influential in the corridors of power. Their purpose is to shape the information you consume and to slant your thinking towards their tribe. It is a constantly changing, moment-to-moment existence, and everything that happens in Parliament House revolves around them one way or another.
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