Big Week. Live Shows, Life Choices.

Lizzie and I wound up our winter sabbatical with a live show in partnership with McKinnon’s Democracy Counts campaign. Thanks for those who made it out to Parramatta, it’s always better to do things IRL and the buzz of a live audience is always worth bottling. Thanks to our guests Hamish McDonald, Emma McDonald, Jess Scully and the students from University of Wester Sydney for all being such good sports.

You can see the full show here:

**
We also released the July Essential Report this week which showed One Nation’s vote tapering away and the government stabilising off the back of broad approval of their performance on health.

It inspired my Guardian column where I really tortured that metaphor. Sometimes you just have to run with it …

This brings us to the internal probe conducted in Adelaide last week. Focusing on gas policy would needlessly torture our metaphor, but the agreement to plug this issue cleared the party bowels of any obvious blockage.

Having been to ALP conferences back to the halcyon Hobart casino days of the 90s, I cannot remember the organs working so smoothly with complex and corrosive inputs being processed without any visible discomfort.

The one political polyp on an otherwise clear reading is Ed Husic. His irritation level, a consequence of the party’s own factional processes, risks becoming chronic. It is clearly causing referred pain to the leader.

While Husic could not summon a supporter for his motions, the lack of a more balanced diet on the Gaza genocide and Aukus shakedown means these lesions remain untreated with a real risk they could turn into something nastier.

• Full article here:

• And here’s a link to the Australian Politics podcast I recorded with Josh Butler.

**

All this was going down as I was announcing a big change-up in my own career. If you are stable enough not to be on Linked In here is the announcement I posted Wednesday:**

Some big news from me. Today I shared the following note with the Essential staff. Chuffed to be handing over leadership to a new generation of principled, progressive professionals: Peter Stahel, Alissa Henderson, Alana Mew, Alys Gagnon and Natalie Dubois. I know the company I have given my working life to is in safe hands.

****
Team,

After a lot of thought I have made the decision to step back from day-to-day work in Essential and hand over leadership to a new generation of owners.

Having worked on this business for more than 30 years, first my own little company Rivet Media and then with Essential since 2004, this is obviously a big move.

I have reached the point where I don’t feel I have the drive and energy to chase work and manage multiple clients anymore and want to give myself the space to pursue the things I really enjoy that no one pays for like my writing, bloviating and activism.

I feel I can make the move now because the company is in really good shape and the time is right to hand the reins to Peter to lead the business over the next two decades.

I am also thrilled that Natalie, Alys, Alana and Alissa have all chosen to take up shareholdings, meaning the business will go forward as a true collaborative enterprise.

I plan to retain a small stake in the company and will continue to support in a non-executive role ensuring that Essential succeeds into the future, so you won’t be fully rid of me yet.

I will continue to work a couple of days a week till the end of September after which I will be off the books, although I will continue to work on the Guardian Essential Report because it meets my two main post-Essential criteria (a) it’s fun and (b) it doesn’t make me money.

I will always be an advocate and pipeline for work to the company and will be only a phone call away from anyone who needs a steer.

Essential has been such a big part of my professional life and I know it will be a massive change for me but I am really excited to hand it on and watch it thrive.

***

The response to my announcement has been quite overwhelming, with generous notes from alumni, former clients and the band of misfits I’ve met along the way. It has really drilled home to me the importance of collaboration and community.

I’m looking forward to having the space to make more sense of all this over the coming months but the one thing I am carrying this week is a deep appreciation of the idea that you live your best life in relationship with others.

One of the things I am planning to spend more time on this site and how to build a similar sense of fraternity around the exchange of ideas. With Burning Platforms and What’s Your Poison we have the base of building a place of generous and curious discourse.

I am really interested in exploring is whether we can build on this to make the space less about me and more about us. I’m really interested on other’s thoughts on what this might look like. More writers? More areas demanding we look outside our own bubble? More opportunities to link our online presence with the real world?

As Dan likes to say, fire away!