Contacting Members of Parliament - a guide.

[Oliando]

Contacting Members of Parliament


http://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/lobby.html

Who to Contact

Who to contact depends on whether the matter concerns Federal or State/Territory or Local Government responsibilities or laws. This section presently only covers contacting members of Federal Parliament.

Federal/Commonwealth Parliament:

The most relevant politicians to contact are:

• Your representatives:
  • Member of House of Representatives:
    To find the name of the Member who represents your electorate, enter your postcode on the Australian Electoral Commission's Find page which will give you the name of your electorate and then find the name of your electorate on the list of Members by electorate on the Federal Parliament's site.
  • Senators:
    To find the names of Senators who represent your State/Territory, see the list of Senators by State/Territory on the Federal Parliament's site.
• Minister / Shadow Minister responsible for the matter. The Parliament web site contains lists of Ministers and Shadow Ministers.
• Other members of Parliament who have an interest in the matter, for example, members of a relevant Parliamentary Committee. See Senate Committees and House of Representatives Committees.

For information on how to address a letter to a member of Parliament, see Form of Address below.

How to Contact & Effectiveness of Methods

The effectiveness of methods of contact from most effective to least effective are:

• Face to face meeting:
  Face to face meetings with your representative and/or a relevant member of their staff are the most effective. A meeting usually needs to be arranged at least a week (and often more) in advance, and may be particularly difficult to organise for a day during weeks when Parliament is sitting.
• Letter:
  A handwritten, or typed and signed letter, is the most effective means of communication (other than a face to face meeting). It is far more effective than photocopied form letters, postcard campaigns or emails. Some politicians regard handwritten letters more highly than typewritten letters (some of these are technologically illiterate, and some find it convenient to claim the sender probably just cut and pasted what someone else said without thinking about the issue themself).
  See tips for writing letters later herein.
• Telephone call:
  A phone call to your representative's office (local electorate office or at Parliament House) is generally more effective than sending email, but is less effective than writing and mailing a letter.
• Fax:
  The effectiveness of fax communication is higher than email, but less than a mailed letter and roughly equivalent to a phone call.
• Email:
  Email is by far the least effective way of communicating your views to your representative/s. Some politicians regard email as "second class mail" (as reported by the Commonwealth Department of the Parliamentary Reporting Staff in the 2000/01 Annual Report) and some do not even read email. Others receive so much email that they and their staff have difficulty managing it.
  However, when you are unable to find time to mail a letter or make a phone call, it is better to send an email than do nothing.
  See tips on sending email later herein that will help maximise the probability of your email being read and considered. It is also worth bearing in mind comments made by several politicians in an article titled Getting pollies' e-ttention (by Selina Mitchell, The Australian IT, 8 May 2001) which include:

  "...Some [politicians] The Australian spoke to will simply delete all email from people living outside of their constituency, while others will open emails with subject lines indicating an area of interest. Most will not forward emails to colleagues. Many say they are wary of bandwidth-hungry email postcards and form-letter style bombardments. 'I think the view amongst parliamentarians is that if you get an influx of email from different people but it is the same letter word for word, all it says is that someone has a good network,' POITAG chair and Liberal MP Kevin Andrews says.
  'A personal representation is much better than one that is mass produced - don't just regurgitate what someone at the head of a lobby group says.'
  But politicians have different ideas about what constitutes spam. Shadow IT spokeswoman Senate [sic] Kate Lundy says she doesn't receive much, but she does receive up to 200 emails every day. And, unlike many of her colleagues, she regards email postcards and form letters as a useful way of getting a message across.
  'We should value email because of its ease, not devalue it because it can create more work for us,' she says.
  But she admits that she struggles with the 'resource' sometimes. ..."
  (For full article see: Getting pollies' e-ttention, Selina Mitchell, The Australian IT, 8 May 2001)
  

Form of Address & Mail Addresses


Federal Parliament: House of Representatives: Ministers:
The Hon (firstname surname), MP
Dear Minister
Others:
Generally*:
Mr/Mrs/Ms/Dr (firstname surname), MP
Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms/Dr (surname)
*Note: Ex-ministers are entitled to be addressed "The Hon". If uncertain check the correct form of address at:
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/ members/mi-elctr.asp

Mail Address:
The House of Representatives, Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600
Senate: Ministers:
Senator the Hon (firstname surname)
Dear Minister
Others:
Generally*:
Senator (firstname surname)
Dear Senator (surname)
*Note: Ex-ministers are entitled to be addressed "Senator the Hon". If uncertain, check the correct form of address at:
http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/ senators/homepages/si-alpha.htm

Mail Address:
The Senate, Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600

[Marama]

THANK YOU!
Such valuable info Oliando.
Again, thank you.

[Macsilver]

Fantastic Oliando.
I have just been getting contacts together now.

[Sundari]

As this is something coming from both the states and federal I believe it is important contact - letters and visits in person preferably -state health ministers as well as federal MP's AND senators.

These meetings need to be before end of July.

To find senators see http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/Senators/homepages/index.asp
To find your local state and federal politician look on https://oevf.aec.gov.au/
http://apps.aec.gov.au/esearch/ address details on http://www.directory.gov.au/
Copy all letters to
Nicola Roxon
Minister For Health and Aging
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2601

[cindabelle]

Fantastic Oliando!

[LightMaker]

That's a fantastic guide- thankyou so much

[~Aiyana~]

Oliando

[Morgan Le Faye]

Ahhh, this answers my questions about how to address the MP.
Thank you

[Sundari]

Just a reminder with this issue it's important we send letters to the STATE health ministers too.

[Morgan Le Faye]

Here is the Victorian one;

Andrews, Mr Daniel Michael
Minister for Health

Electorate - Mulgrave


ALP


Ministerial Office-
Level 22, 50 Lonsdale St, Melbourne 3000
Tel: 9096 8561
Fax: 9096 8355

Electorate office –
517A Princes Hwy, Noble Park 3174
Tel: 9548 5644
Fax: 9548 5634
Email: daniel.andrews@parliament.vic.gov.au