City Beat: Big trouble in PR paradise

A high-profile Brisbane public relations firm has been hit hard after the entire board of one of its clients was fired in a shock move last month.

WE hear the recent troubling events at Nauru Airlines has hit one of Brisbane’s more high profile public relations outfits.

Lyall Mercer from Mercer PR.

Mercer PR, run by Lyall Mercer, had until recently been doing public relations work for the carrier but that now appears in doubt after a three-man group appointed by Nauru’s new government last month fired the airline’s entire board.

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Following the defeat of Nauru President Baron Waqa in elections in August, Mercer’s work with the Nauru government also appears to be over.

City Beat spies tell us that the new government appears to be washing its hands of anything to do with the previous administration.

The international spotlight has been on the tiny republic thanks to it hosting a controversial detention center housing asylum seekers on behalf of Australia, its biggest foreign aid donor.

Lyall Mercer told City Beat yesterday that he could not discuss individual clients for confidentiality reasons. However, he confirmed the firm had assisted Nauru Airlines for a short time recently as requested by the previous board.

Nauru Airlines has hit trouble.

“There is now a new board post-election and what they do in terms of communication is up to them,” he says.

In terms of the Nauru government, he says the firm has not handled media relations for it for a number of years but had assisted them in other areas.

“While there has been an election, we enjoy a good relationship with the current government and the new president. Nauru is a beautiful country with wonderful people that has sadly been misrepresented in a lot of media reporting,” he concluded.