What are lunch breaks for if not to ring the Prime Minister’s office and mumble in a somewhat tongue-tied fashion about the need to bring Abyan back to Australia for treatment?
Well, one thing they are for is letter-writing! As is my usual habit, a copy of the email I just sent to the PM is below the cut. It is not perfect, and yours doesn’t have to be perfect, either.
The important thing, if this is something you care about, is to write *something*. Keep it polite, and probably try to be briefer than me because I always write way too much, which may not be the best way to get read. But the more people who write, or who ring, or who tweet, however incoherently, the louder the message. And feel free to borrow any phrasing that appeals to you from what I’ve written. That’s the other purpose of putting this letter here.
I’ll write to Peter Dutton, Bill Shorten and Richard Marles (Shadow Minister for Immigration) after work, and if their letters are significantly different, I’ll post them below.
Edited to add: My friend P wrote a really excellent letter to both Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Dutton, very different to mine, and considerably better worded, in my opinion!. She has given me permission to post it below as another handy example. I am also adding a link to a very thoughtful article by Julian Burnside on how to write to MPs. He mentions several things that would never have occurred to me, and is collecting replies – and non-replies – from MPs. Definitely a strategy to consider.
Handy contact details:
Malcolm Turnbull – (02) 6277 7700; malcolm.turnbull.mp@aph.gov.au ; @TurnbullMalcolm
Peter Dutton – (02) 6277 7860 or (07) 3205 9977; minister@border.gov.au ; @PeterDutton_MP
Bill Shorten – (02) 6277 4022 or (03) 9326 1300; Bill.Shorten.MP@aph.gov.au; @billshortenmp
Richard Marles – (03) 5221 3033; richard.marles.mp@aph.gov.au @RichardMarlesMP
