Blog post
July 26, 2019

Circular Economy Policy: The Victorian Government Leading The Conversation

The Victorian government has set the challenge of implementing a circular economy policy – a policy whereby waste is recycled into renewable energy, whilst promoting growth of the economy, increasing jobs and reducing the impact waste is having on the environment. Government bodies are leading the conversations around these issues and initiatives with discussions around making the recycling system more resilient and sustainable in order to solve the recycling issue by recycling locally and shipping waste overseas.

Turning waste into energy

In response to this, the Advanced Circular Polymers’ facility has since opened in Victoria – having a processing capacity of 70,000 tonnes a year, it positions Victoria as the hub of remanufacturing in Australia. Partly funded by the Victorian Government and given a $500,000 Sustainability grant, Australia’s largest recycling plant will be powered by renewable energy from a nearby wind farm and will transform large quantities of low-value contaminated mixed plastics from households into high-quality commodities that can go directly into the manufacturer of new products. 

This state of the art plant will reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and play a large role in the nations transition to using renewable energy. 

Why now?

Previously, Australia has relied heavily on China to process recovered plastics with the process involving the waste being collected, sent overseas, reprocessed and then sent back to Australia. A very costly exercise. China has been the largest importer of Australia’s recovered material however in January 2018, China imposed a strict contamination standard on recyclables involving plastic and paper and have banned Australia from sending their waste to the country. 

In May 2019 the Victorian government announced a $35 million Recycling Industry Reform Package to be delivered over three years, to alleviate recycling waste going to landfill as a result of waste companies being forced to stockpile. This package will support the waste and resource recovery sector within Victoria.

Not surprisingly, Energy, Environment and Climate Change Minister Lily D’Ambrosio has been leading the conversations around local councils, local recycling and shipping waste internationally, with over fifty one per cent of mentions on these topics. 

Breaching regulations

Thirty local Victorian councils have been greatly impacted due to being contracted to one of the larger recycling plants who contribute to fifty per cent of curbside recyclables. This operator is facing liquidation as creditors take court action to have it shut down for not being compliant with the Waste Management Policy.

The Environmental Protection Authority Victoria reports this particular facility was issued notices to modify their configuration of its combustible recyclable and waste material stockpiles however failed to do in the requested time frames. The Victorian Waste Management Policy enforced the company to cease accepting any further waste as these stockpiles contained flammable items including batteries, electronic waste and aerosol cans.

Although China’s recycling ban has caused Australia some issues and has forced a re-think on how recycled waste can be processed, it has thankfully started conversations for the Victorian government and governments around the world to shift to a more circular global economy. With adhering to environmental regulations and adopting safer practices, recycling systems worldwide can become more resilient and effective.   

If you would like to understand who is leading the conversations on any topic, with any brand or audience, get in touch with us today

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The advent of LLMs and AI search means that there has been a colossal shift in how audiences are consuming information today,  and a reciprocal shift in how all types of organisations, from government agencies to brands are responding . But while discussion amongst PR and comms pros tends to fall disproportionately on how brands are impacted, the needs of the former are just as keenly felt, and often quite distinctive.

So how can government agencies respond, especially in a time of global flux, when major policy changes need to be communicated and important stakeholders need to be managed? After all, government organisations do care about reputation, much as brands do, but have quite distinctive goals when it comes to ensuring accurate information reaches the right audiences.

There is a new entry point for stakeholders


The era of "Let me Google that" is rapidly fading. Instead of clicking through to official websites, people are asking chatbots for direct answers.  What’s striking is that government agencies often have no visibility on how they’re being talked about in the LLM space, even as it becomes a central channel for messaging and reputation. 

When AI models become the primary gatekeeper, audiences bypass official portals entirely — driving down site traffic and leaving agencies vulnerable to misinformation, negative sentiment, or worse, being left out of the conversation altogether. 

Therefore, the entry point is different. For commercial brands, this shift is profound but in some ways mediated – an FMCG brand, for instance, often discovered through third-party platforms in any case. But for government entities, the stakes are entirely different. As the sole, authoritative source for public information, they need citizens on their websites to get accurate details. Government agencies, especially if they are the authority or regulator in a particular industry or sector, need to make sure audiences know where to go to get the right information.

Different types of government agencies have different considerations

Not all government agencies are alike, and they all have different parameters that are quite non-negotiable for them, just by the way they function. 

  1. Service delivery agencies - these rely heavily on content freshness. They can’t risk outdated sources impacting eligibility or process changes not reaching audiences.
  2. Regulators - these need to transmit authority and trust. Regulators have to make it a priority that they’re amongst the first place audiences go to for information and that the industry they’re regulating does not put them in the shade on the channels stakeholders are actually using
  3. Policy departments - did the AI's account of a policy match what was actually announced? They want to be able to make sure the accuracy of a policy (and ideally, its effectiveness) is translated when audiences search through LLMs.
  4. Local and state authorities want to make sure the services they carry out on behalf of locals are visible too. Much like service providers, there is a question around access and awareness of programmes and regulations, but also an added consideration: not appearing on LLMs discontent amongst those wishing to see a return on taxation and electoral mandates, and give credence to bad actors.

What do government agencies want to get out of this new LLM-mediated landscape? 

Reputation is important, but that exists downstream from maintaining a flow of accurate information. It’s useful for communications teams in government organisations to self reflect and ask themselves the following questions:

  • Where are citizens going to find information about your services if not your website — and do you know what they're being told?
  • If there was a significant policy change or incident in the last twelve months, do you know how it's currently being characterised when someone asks an Al tool about your agency?
  • When you communicate a major service change or policy update, do you have any way of measuring whether it’s surfacing in searches about you?
  • How do you currently understand the gap between what your agency publishes and what citizens actually receive when they search for information?
  • Are there community groups, advocacy organisations, or media outlets shaping perception of your agency - and do you know if that's feeding into what Al models say?

These are gaps they already realise, but they don’t actually know what to do about it – how to manage or measure them. They need a tool that allows them to know this critical piece of information and make informed decisions. 

Lumina AI View: AI visibility for PR & Comms


Lumina AI view is built for communicators who want to understand how their organisation and their competitors are being talked about by various AI models – including ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. AI View users get an insight into which sources are being cited, and how they would need to respond as a way of protecting their reputation or making sure correct information about them is being disseminated. 

The tool provides an AI view score — a composite metric ranging from zero to 100, designed to help track brand performance over time and facilitate comparisons against competitors. It is calculated using five weighted factors — sentiment, visibility, authority, dominance and freshness. Beyond the overall score, the platform provides a summary of a brand's AI narrative based on four distinct reputation pillars — direction, performance, integrity and innovation. 

These pillars help users identify exactly which dimension of a brand's reputation is under pressure, offering specific, actionable insights for board presentations or reviews. Ultimately, while the AI view platform provides the necessary intelligence, the strategic decisions regarding how to respond to these insights remain with the organisation.

Spotlight: An Australian Council


This progressive local government council is located in Australia’s leading center for culture and sports.

The council earned an AI view score of 74 reflected by strong reach and authority. Publications like CBD News and its own website are the most cited by LLMs — interestingly, most of them being cited by Claude.

Content freshness scored lower at 48. Their website still carries error pages and annual reports from a few years ago. If a report — one that is seen as an organisation’s most comprehensive and authoritative content, is still being cited even if it’s older, might potentially be in the way of the organisation’s own perception. Which means more work is needed to prevent outdated content from still appearing.

What type of content is showing up?

Most citations for the council originate from government sources, followed by news outlets, reports, and blogs. The domain is evenly split between owned content and content earned from external sources media articles and independent authorities. 

While most are recent, some older articles from major outlets such as The BBC remain visible and may significantly influence how LLMs perceive the council. Owned content typically addresses last year’s budget plans and the council’s latest vision for the city, which LLMs are referencing. Government sources are the major content type, however, external sources have a greater impact on the council’s overall LLM score.

The stakes are higher for government agencies

When brands track LLM visibility, they often ask, "Are we shown in a positive light?" or "Are we cited accurately?" For the government, additional questions arise: "Is this information accurate enough for someone to act on?" and "Are we still viewed as more authoritative than what we oversee?" Mistakes can have serious consequences, such as individuals applying for ineligible programs or missing critical deadlines for new initiatives or elections. This can quickly lead to public frustration. It is essential for government communicators to recognize these risks.


If you would like to know more about our Lumina suite, please reach out here and our team will get in touch with for you a quick demo.

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Blog
Why is tracking government visibility on LLMs different from tracking brands?

Government agencies often can’t see how AI chatbots describe them. Here’s why LLM visibility matters and how to track it.

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There is a new frontier where public perception is shaped: Large Language Models. Right now, LLMs are answering critical questions about your organisation. What are they saying? And more importantly, which sources are shaping those answers?

To navigate this landscape, public relations professionals don't need generic tools, but rather technology that speaks their language, and addresses the realities of a changed media and informational landscape.

That is why we're unveiling Lumina AI View, the latest addition to our intelligent suite of AI tools from Isentia. Trained specifically on the workflows and challenges of modern PR & communications, Lumina AI View helps you understand exactly what AI knows about you, and how it learned it.

A new standard for AI visibility

AI View tracks your citation strength and source quality alongside those of your competitors, giving you a clear view of where you hold authority and where you have gaps.

Lumina AI View maps your AI reputation from the ground up, allowing you to:

  • See which sources matter: When tools such as ChatGPT or Gemini discuss your organisation, which outlets do they cite? Track your source footprint over time and view the impact of key target media on how you’re discussed. We measure your citation strength and source quality alongside those of competitors, giving you a clear view of where you have authority and where you have gaps.
  • Gain industry-specific insight: Your competitors get cited from Financial Times and Bloomberg. You get cited on Reddit. Each brings opportunity – and risk. Discover how you measure up against industry standards, and target the sources that actually influence how AI represents you.
  • Catch narrative shifts early: AI responses change when new sources appear, sentiment shifts, or old controversies resurface. Get alerts when citation patterns change suddenly, before they impact the way you’re perceived by stakeholders.

Measure your progress: From media monitoring to full media intelligence

Lumina AI View is built on the principle that insights get stronger with repeated measurement. To help you maintain a clear view of your reputation, our proprietary scoring system provides regular updates that show you:

  • Evolving trends in how sources cite your organisation
  • Competitive standing and benchmark metrics
  • Where models differ in information presented, and sources cited 

Whether you run it weekly, on-demand, or whenever you need a check-in, patterns will emerge, trends will become clear, and you will build a baseline that makes any sudden narrative changes both comprehensible and the prerequisite to action.

Lumina AI View is part of Lumina AI, a comprehensive suite of AI tools built specifically for communicators. Our Lumina suite evolves traditional media monitoring into narrative intelligence, enabling you to truly understand how perceptions form, evolve, and impact your reputation.


Get in touch to register your interest and see what Lumina AI View can do for you.

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Blog
Introducing Lumina AI View: AI Visibility Built for PR & Comms

Lumina AI View, the latest in Isentia’s AI suite, is trained on PR & comms workflows to help you understand what AI knows about you — and how it learned it.

Ready to get started?

Get in touch or request a demo.