Tag: bothering politicians (Page 2 of 2)

Politics: An (opinionated) letter in support of marriage equality

August 24, 2011 / Catherine / 0 Comments

Dear –

I’m writing to ask you to stand in support of marriage equality.

I’m writing because I am married. Because I’m a woman and married to a man, this is an easy statement to make – one which carries no particular political message or weight, except, perhaps, a message of normality.

I have gay friends who are not married and don’t want to be married.

I have gay friends who are married, because they love each other and want to be together for life, and because they live or lived in countries where they were allowed to express this.

I have gay friends who have had commitment ceremonies, because they love each other and want to be together for life, but Australian law sadly refuses to allow them to say to their families and friends “this is my husband” or “this is my wife”.

The anti-gay-marriage lobby is correct to say that these words are special, and mean more than words like ‘partner’ or ‘girlfriend’ or ‘flatmate’. They carry a message, not just about the relationship between two people, and the shape of a family, but about the society in which that family lives. They carry a message about what is acceptable and what is less acceptable – about what is legal and what is illicit. And by making these words the exclusive property of people in formal, heterosexual relationships, it gives acceptability and credibility to the attitude that gay relationships are less formal, less acceptable, less normal.

Like it or not, making gay relationships intrinsically and legally different to heterosexual ones sends a message that it’s OK not to treat gay people the same as straight people, because that is exactly what the government is doing. Not only is this the sort of thinking that leads to bullying and discrimination, it also allows well-meaning people to stay secure in their prejudices. Gays must be different – the law says so. That’s why they can’t marry. It also makes it easy for less well-meaning people to compare consensual gay relationships to pedophilia or bestiality, because they are all seen as illegal or illicit.

As long as we refuse to allow our gay brothers and sisters to marry the people they love, we encourage these attitudes.

The government’s role is to lead society forward, not be dragged backward by its most prejudiced elements. It has been shown over and over that gay people can have the same sorts of relationships as straight people, that gay parents can raise happy and well-adjusted children, that, in short, the gender of the people we love has absolutely no relationship to our other qualities. There is no great social good to be had from limiting marriage to heterosexual unions, but there are plenty of evils in allowing this to continue.

I ask you to support the 60% of Australians who believe that gay marriage should be legal.

My marriage does not need the kind of protection that comes from denying marriage to others.

Yours sincerely,

Catherine

Politics: Update on Seena

February 21, 2011 / Catherine / 0 Comments

I got an email from my local MP this morning:

Dear Ms McLean,

Thank you for your email expressing concern about children in detention.

I am very sympathetic to the difficult circumstances facing the family members of the people tragically killed at Christmas Island on 15 December last year, especially the children.

We have a duty of care to ensure the health and well-being of all children in the care of the Immigration Department very seriously, particularly in relation to mental health issues.

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship is currently finalising arrangements and advice to enable Minister Bowen to make a decision to accommodate Sina, the 9 year old orphan who travelled to Sydney for the funerals, and his family, in community detention arrangements, along with accommodation options for the other two orphans and their family members.

Sina and the other two children along with their families are expected to be living in the community by the end of next week.

I hope this information is of assistance to you. Should you feel I can be of further assistance in this or any other matter in future, please do not hesitate to contact me again.

Yours sincerely,

Kelvin Thomson MP

Member for Wills

Letters do make a difference, if enough people write them. Now we just have to get the other 700+ children out of detention…

Politics: Children in Detention – Seena Akhliqi Sheikhdost

February 16, 2011 / Catherine / 0 Comments

So, there’s a child in detention on Christmas Island because he is an ‘illegal immigrant’. Actually, there are a lot of children in detention in Australia and on Christmas Island for this reason, but for now I’m just going to focus on one, because I am torn between tears and fury.

Seena Akhliqi Sheikhdost was one of the children in the boat tragedy off Christmas Island late last year. His parents both drowned, but he survived, and was of course put into detention, because we are compassionate people who find this an appropriate way to deal with bereaved eight-year-old suspected terrorists. He does, in fact, have family in Sydney, but as an unaccompanied minor, the Government is his legal guardian, and the Government apparently have forgotten why we got rid of Little Johnny, or else they don’t care. They don’t want to release him to his family because they haven’t processed him yet. He has been in detention for more than two months, His first six days in detention he spent without any family, although he had an aunt in the same centre. She wasn’t initially told he was there, you see (to be fair, this was probably bureaucratic stupidity, but there is enough awfulness to go around without adding that sort of thing into it).

As an illegal immigrant, Seena doesn’t get to go to school. He doesn’t get to associate with Australian citizens, either. And while he was allowed to go to the funeral of his parents, he can’t go back home with the family members who are in Australia legally, because he doesn’t have ASIO clearance. And did I mention that he is eight years old?

I find this deeply upsetting to contemplate, which means it’s time to write to the politicians again…

Politics: Pakistan and Bipartisan Aid

August 23, 2010 / Catherine / 0 Comments

Oxfam emailed me this week asking for money because the floods in Pakistan are apparently phenomenally bad, and there are literally millions of people affected. To make matters worse, there are so many people currently living in temporary accommodation, with insufficient food or clean water, that disease-borne infections are spreading. The real difficulty is that what aid is coming is not enough – and it’s arriving very slowly, which gives disease even more time to spread. This is definitely the sort of thing you want to get onto early, which hasn’t happened (and, let’s face it – I, for one have been far too absorbed with the election to pay attention to any other news).

Anyway, I’ve now donated via Oxfam Australia (link is here, if you are interested).

I’ve also been a bit cheeky and have emailed both Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard asking them for bipartisan action to assist the people of Pakistan. After all (though I did not say this in my email), I imagine they won’t be doing much actual governing this week, so they might as well do something productive with their time…

Besides, maybe it will win them votes. And even if it doesn’t, it’s the right thing to do.

To be honest, I’m kind of embarrassed about even bothering (especially since I don’t really know what I’m talking about) and very much doubt my email will have any use or effect. It’s most likely that Gillard and Abbott are both wrapped up in the whole election mess right now, with no attention to spare for anything else. It’s also probable that they both know all about Pakistan already and it isn’t all that high on the priority list. But there is the very faint hope that one of their advisors will in fact read the email at the right moment and think that actually, foreign aid for a major crisis is a reasonably non-controversial issue and one that might make them look good. Or that one or both of them will think, you know, we really *should* do something to help here, regardless of politics (why yes, I am an optimist). So perhaps it was worth writing something after all.

And, actually, maybe we should all be writing to our politicians about Pakistan. It’s not a troublemaking issue like an Emissions Trading Scheme or Asylum Seekers (though one really good way to prevent Asylum Seekers coming to Australia is surely to make their countries of origin safer). It’s far enough away not to be seen as a vote-buying exercise. And humanitarian aid is surely something we all agree on. I think it’s an excellent project for a government that is effectively in recess for the next week or two…

Anyway, here’s what I wrote:

Continue reading

Politics: Asylum Seekers – this is not what I had hoped for from the ALP

April 15, 2010 / Catherine / 0 Comments

So, apparently our spineless excuse for a government has decided that we shouldn’t process applications for residency from Afghani and Sri Lankan refugees. Because clearly when we all voted against John Howard and he lost both the election and his seat in Parliemtn, what we really meant was that we wanted more of the same.

I am absolutely livid. Admittedly, I’ve been cranky all day, but this really infuriates me beyond belief.

Anyway, I’ve just channelled an entire day’s worth of bad temper into an email to Chris Evans, via Getup. If you’re an Australian resident and feel at all strongly about refugees, I urge you to do the same.

My (probably incoherent, since I was and still am furious) email is below. It doesn’t cover any of the suggested talking points. Sod the talking points. Our entire immigration policy is filled with racism, xenophobia and a complete lack of compassion and it’s an utter shame, which I, for one, have had enough of. Anyway, if you find anything in it useful, please feel free.

Politics: Replies from MPs

October 13, 2008 / Catherine / 0 Comments

In my inbox this morning, a brief email from one of the MPs I wrote to, thanking me for me email, and saying it meant a lot. I sent emails to 23 MPs, all of them brief (three sentences), and only a few of them individualised except by name, just saying thank you for their support of the bill. I didn’t expect a response from any of them, they were just quick emails to hopefully counteract some of the nasty ones that I hear were sent to the MPs voting in favour of decriminalisation.

I’ve checked, and Ms Coote got one of my very generic ones, so I’m doubly touched at her response.

(also, I think this is the first time I’ve ever got mail of any kind from someone in the Liberal Party (since the Liberals don’t even bother letterboxing in my electorate)! Soon, I shall collect the whole set!)

It’s really good to know that even a short, generic thank you email is something that will be read and will apparently make someone’s day a little better. I’m sort of feeling guilty that I didn’t write more individualised emails to everyone – but reading all that Hansard takes a long time, so I really only wrote more specific thanks to people whose speeches stood out for me.

Guilt aside though, it means that it *is* worth taking the time to write to politicians, even if I only have time to be brief. Which means I am more likely to do so.

(Do they know what they have started? Bwah ha ha ha!!)

It’s a time-consuming business, though. I want to do more of this, but I’m clearly going to have to choose my issues carefully. There must be a faster way to learn when legislation that I might be interested in is being discussed than going through Hansard page by page…

Politics: More on Legalisation and Letter-Writing

October 9, 2008 / Catherine / 0 Comments

One really delightful result of sending my letter to senators is that Greens Senator, Colleen Hartland, sends us daily updates on the debate in the Senate, with links to speeches by other MPs that she thinks we will find of interest.

And, I’m delighted to say, she doesn’t care which party they come from.

So. Here are two speeches from Labor Senators in favour of this Bill. I haven’t had a chance to read them yet, but I’ll be going through Hansard in detail later.

Jenny Mikakos

Shaune Leane, I think. This one is confusing me, because his name does not come up at the start.

And, for those who are interested, here is the email, with a few more details about what is going on.

Politics: And this is why writing to politicians can actually be important…

October 8, 2008 / Catherine / 0 Comments

I just received an email from the Greens Upper House MP for my electorate. The email was sent to all the people who had sent letters of support for the decriminalisation of abortion bill. In it, she included a link to her speech

http://www.electedgreensvictoria.org.au/speech.php?speech=495&filter=CH

Either she read my letter and actually used some of what I said (a couple of sentences are almost word for word) or we agree so entirely that… well that I don’t know what. I don’t think I’ve ever read a political speech on any subject where I can agree with absolutely every nuance of what she says. My faith in the Greens is much revived…

Whichever it is, I am so very happy. All that remains now is for the bill to get passed in the Upper House… The temptation to go and sit in the visitors’ gallery this week is strong. I think I’m about to become a Hansard addict again…

I’m sure there was something else I wanted to post about, but I’m just so excited by the notion that perhaps my letter actually got used by someone that I can’t think straight about anything else. I am part of the political process!

Politics: Decriminalising Abortion in Victoria – time to bother some politicians!

September 16, 2008 / Catherine / 0 Comments

So, here in Victoria we are currently trying to decriminalise abortion. And about time too – we’ve had a silly criminal law on the books that nobody has been prosecuted under for over 20 years, so it’s certainly time we got sensible about it.

Anyway, it’s before the Upper House at the moment, having barely passed the lower house, so now is a good opportunity to email your favourite member of parliament about it.

My personal irritant is people who keep trying to amend it to make things harder or more embarrassing or require ‘anonymous review panels’ for abortions, or, in particular, bring forward the gestational time at which abortion is legal. Having trained as a genetic counsellor, this particularly gets my goat, as the people most affected by this law would be women who either have serious medical issues themselves or who have just had a very nasty prenatal diagnosis.

Here’s the letter I’m sending to basically everyone in parliament this week.