Australia’s infrastructure and population are constantly growing and as well as being a resilient economy, the expectations of quality infrastructure and connectivity for a better quality of life are increasing. Infrastructure also provides the opportunity for leading companies to finance, construct, own and operate infrastructure assets.
The issue in Australia – most of the infrastructure required to be built are in complex cities and are in highly urbanised environments and with this comes significant environmental issues, planning issues and community issues. It also means that solutions to these problems are expensive and developers and governments are finding it difficult to fund the expensive infrastructure projects. The rise in discussions around future cities has increased by 175 per cent with conversations being had around the Australian government improving productivity and liveability of the nation’s largest cities as they grow over the next 30 years.
In this whitepaper we explore the various infrastructures within Australia including transport, water, energy and telecommunications to understand their current status, the effects each sector is having on the environment and analyse the role media plays.
Loren is an experienced marketing professional who translates data and insights using Isentia solutions into trends and research, bringing clients closer to the benefits of audience intelligence. Loren thrives on introducing the groundbreaking ways in which data and insights can help a brand or organisation, enabling them to exceed their strategic objectives and goals.
The early start of the bushfire season is being raised by the fire authorities as a serious concern. With another summer of record high temperatures still to come and no sign of the drought breaking, the bushfires have sparked the use of terms such as crisis, emergency, unprecedented and historic in the media. But bushfires in Queensland are not unusual and the subject of climate change being a contributor is also a hot topic.
In this blog, we delve deeper into these topics by analysing the media coverage around the Queensland bushfires and climate change.
In the past year, “bushfire,” “Queensland” and related keywords returned close to 174,000 mentions.
Throughout November and December 2018, we saw a spike in mentions predominantly across Broadcast. During this time, the media communicated great concern over an early start to the fire season and the lack of rain that was expected in the coming weeks and months.
Interestingly, the number of mentions from these months combined equates to less than the number of mentions that have happened in September 2019. These figures tell a story with emphasis being placed on the severity of the bushfires, the surrounding issues around climate change and the government’s response.
Queensland has been facing it’s most catastrophic bushfire season in recorded history - with more than fifty bushfires burning at one time. The Bureau of Meteorology’s data on climate change shows that rising temperatures have been evident since the beginning of the 20th century and have been gaining momentum with rising carbon emissions year on year.
This year, a warming climate has contributed to the early fire season. With an unusually dry winter, very little rainfall and above average temperatures, weather conditions like these have not been seen so early in Spring. Vegetation such as rainforests are now flammable thanks to a drier and hotter climate. These conditions are also putting more people at risk with health issues as well as fires threatening people's homes.
The drought that’s now across much of the eastern seaboard has set the scene for more frequent and intense fires this summer. Currently, approximately 98 per cent of New South Wales and 65 per cent of Queensland are drought affected. Many towns in regional New South Wales and southern Queensland are having to get water supplies transported to them to avoid water shortages.
The warming climate has also increased the possibility of bushfires burning in different states simultaneously. Due to this, the paradigm to a strategic firefighting plan is required whereby states will need to resource their own fires as the resources aren’t available to lend a helping hand.
Despite the numerous bushfires that have happened in recent weeks, politicians have been insisting that climate change isn’t relevant to this year’s fire season.
Climate scientists advise this is a dangerous approach and Queensland's summer of disasters is evidence that climate change will take an economic toll on taxpayers.
Bushfires and floods have been ravaging Queensland over the past three months and if natural disasters continue, the State Budget is estimated to take a hit of at least $1.5b.
The government has made disaster recovery payments available for eligible residents, where up to 13 weeks of income assistance can be claimed for those affected by natural disasters.
Strikes for climate change have been prominent on a global scale with ‘Strike for Climate’ rallies that have taken place in multiple cities around the world. The first rallies took place Friday 20th September 2019 and continued until Friday 27th September. During the week period, there were over 16,000 media mentions on the subject with 84 per cent of these mentions made online. These numbers depict just how prominent the subject of climate change is in the media.
In the below, we see the dispersion of mentions about the climate change strikes across Broadcast, Print and Online news.
These strikes were brought on after Swedish teenage activist, Greta Thunberg started to raise global awareness of the risks posed by climate change. She wanted to put pressure on politicians to be held accountable for their lack of action on the climate crisis.
Within Australia, hundreds of thousands of school students walked out of classrooms and rallied for action to be taken. The September strikes followed strikes that were held in March this year where over 150,000 people marched in Australia and 1.5million world wide.
Australia was one of the first countries in the world to join the global climate strike protests, with hundreds of thousands rallying in countries around the world. In capital cities around Australia, people prepared signs and chanted slogans in favour of swift climate action.
In Australia protesters want the Federal Government to commit to:
Looking to the future, it will be interesting to see how government bodies around the world respond to the rallies, to the changing climate and the effect they are having on the environment and community.
If you would like to learn more about the media coverage about this topic or anything media intelligence related, get in touch with us today.
The early start of the bushfire season is being raised by fire authorities as a serious concern. Predicted to be another summer of record high temperatures with no sign of the drought breaking, their presence have sparked concern within the media and ignited debates over the role climate change plays with fires.
The role of communications professionals is evolving rapidly. AI is now actively shaping how organisations build trust, manage reputation, and engage key audiences, moving beyond theoretical discussions.
Gartner’s latest forecasts for Chief Communications Officers (CCOs) highlight a growing profession under increased scrutiny. Traditional methods such as press releases and media relationships are no longer sufficient. Communication is now central to business, and supporting tools must evolve accordingly.
Isentia’s platform combines AI-driven media intelligence, real-time narrative tracking, and expert human analysis. These capabilities address several urgent needs identified by Gartner. Below, we outline key predictions and how Isentia’s tools help meet these challenges.
Gartner predicts that, as large language models replace traditional search, PR, and earned media, PR and earned media budgets will double by 2027. Stakeholders will increasingly view organisations through AI-generated summaries. The quality, authority, and timeliness of earned media will directly influence how AI systems represent your organisation.
Gartner emphasises that this is a communications challenge, not a marketing or SEO issue. Search engine optimisation requires PR and communications expertise to build trust, secure media coverage, and maintain consistent messaging across stakeholders.
Isentia’s Lumina AI suite and Narratives AI tools address these needs. Narratives AI identifies, summarises, and ranks stories from billions of news articles and social media posts in real time and historically. It reveals how stories develop and spread, enabling communications teams to understand both the content and its influence on AI-generated perceptions.
Isentia’s upcoming Lumina AI View feature enables organisations to see how their brand appears across AI platforms and understand the information shaping those results. Intelligence is no longer a luxury.
Gartner’s second forecast was that by 2029, 45% of CCOs will use narrative intelligence technologies to monitor reputation amid rising disinformation. Traditional monitoring tools often miss early signs of harmful stories because they focus on keywords rather than story development and spread.
Isentia has addressed this challenge. Our crisis monitoring teams provide 24/7 coverage and real-time alerts via email, mobile app, and WhatsApp, delivering the intelligence-driven support Gartner recommends.
Our Media Impact Score (MIS) supports this approach. It evaluates not only the volume of coverage but also its reception, combining tone, importance, and audience reach into a single human-coded score that reflects true reputational impact.
Gartner predicts that by 2028, 75% of employees will use chatbots for internal information instead of intranets, newsletters, or manager updates. This shift from push-based to pull-based, conversational access raises important governance considerations.
Isentia’s GenAI-powered Insights Chatbot addresses this need. It allows users to query past reports and data, providing clear, evidence-based answers from the organisation’s media intelligence archive. Teams can interact with their data, compare trends, identify patterns, and access insights efficiently.
As Dr Nici Sweaney, Founder and Director at Ai Her Way, observed at Isentia's recent webinar on AI as a new stakeholder: "What will set people apart — and what AI cannot replicate — is the human lens. The judgment, the relationships, the institutional knowledge, the strategic read of a room. The organisations that lean into supporting their people to harness these tools, rather than just deploying the tools, will be the ones best placed."
This principle guides Isentia’s approach. Our platform combines AI with over 100 local analysts across Southeast Asia (SEA) who review AI-generated data for cultural context, slang, and sarcasm. This model achieves up to 95% sentiment accuracy, ensuring reliable results through human expertise.
Gartner’s last key prediction is that analytics must shift from retrospective to predictive, much on data, and Gartner’s final key prediction is that by 2029, communications teams will double their spending on data and analytics to 6% of budgets. This reflects increased pressure to demonstrate business impact. Nearly half of CCOs struggle to prove their value, and a third report their teams are viewed as cost centres.
RepID and interactive dashboards go far beyond simple metrics. For example, RepID measures an organisation’s reputation by analysing stories and posts across areas such as leadership, ethics, and quality. This gives a clear, evidence-based view of how reputation is really changing, not just how much coverage there is.
Our interactive insights reports enable clients to track share of voice, narrative sentiment, and influencer impact in one platform. This real-time, results-focused measurement aligns with Gartner’s recommendations for credibility in communications.
Communications teams must achieve more, operate with greater precision, move faster, and deliver measurable business results. AI is both the driver and enabler of this change, but success depends on investing in the right intelligence systems.
Isentia’s platform already provides the essential tools Gartner recommends, including Narratives AI, real-time risk alerts, AI-powered chatbots, human-verified insights, and advanced measurement systems. For PR & Comms leaders in Asia-Pacific and beyond, the key question is how quickly they can implement this intelligence.
We invite you to attend our upcoming webinar, Inside the AI Shift: How Communications Leaders Are Adapting, on Tuesday, 28 April 2026 at 11am SGT / 1pm AEST / 3pm NZST via Zoom.
Isentia’s VP of Revenue and Insights for SEA, Prashant Saxena, and ANZ’s Director of Insights, Ngaire Crawford, will discuss how communications teams are meeting increasing demands for speed, insight, and measurement, while adapting to evolving executive expectations as AI becomes a new stakeholder.
The session will explore how communications leaders discuss AI with executives and boards amid increased pressure on risk, measurement, and strategy. It will also examine how teams are adapting workflows and decision-making, the challenges communicators face, and emerging opportunities.
Register below to secure your place.
Taking from the recent PR & Comms predictions for 2026 by Gartner, we observe how Isentia leads in creating a robust AI-powered workspace.
The media landscape is accelerating. In an era where influence is ephemeral and every angle demands instant comprehension, PR and communications professionals require more than generic technology—they need intelligence engineered for their specific challenges.
Isentia is proud to introduce Lumina, a groundbreaking suite of intelligent AI tools. Lumina has been trained from the ground up on the complex workflows and realities of modern communications and public affairs. It is explicitly designed to shift professionals from passive media monitoring back into the role of strategic leaders and pacesetters.
“The PR, Comms and Public Affairs sectors have been experimenting with AI, but most tools have not been built with their real challenges in mind.” said Joanna Arnold, CEO of Pulsar Group.
“Lumina is different; it is the first intelligence suite designed around how narratives actually form today, combining human credibility signals with machine-level analysis. It helps teams understand how stories evolve, filter out noise and respond with context and confidence to crises and opportunities.”
Lumina is centered on empowering, not replacing, the human element of communications strategy. This suite is purpose-built to help PR, Comms, and Public Affairs professionals significantly improve productivity, enhance message clarity, and facilitate early risk detection.
Lumina enables communicators to:
We are launching the Lumina suite by making our first module immediately available: Stories & Perspectives.
In the current fragmented, multi-channel media environment, communications professionals need to be able to instantly perceive not just how a story is growing, but also how it is being perceived across different stakeholder groups.
Stories & Perspectives organizes raw media mentions into clustered, cohesive Stories, and the Perspectives that exist within each, reflecting distinct media, audience, and public affairs angles. This unique functionality allows users to:
"Media isn’t a stream of mentions," said Kyle Lindsay, Head of Product at Pulsar Group. "But rather a living system of stories shaped by competing perspectives. When you can see those structures clearly, you gain the ability to understand issues as they form, anticipate how they’ll evolve, and act with precision. That’s what we mean when we talk about AI built for communicators, and that's what an off-the-shelf LLM can't give you."
The launch of Stories & Perspectives is the first release of many. Over the upcoming months, we will systematically roll out the full Lumina roadmap, introducing a comprehensive set of AI tools engineered to handle every phase of the communications lifecycle.
The full Lumina suite will soon incorporate:
Want to harness the power of Lumina AI for your PR, Comms, or Public Affairs team? .
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