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Welcome to Econnect Communication’s March 2006 newsletter –
‘Communicating
with politicians’.
We’ve all been on the road this month, and have had more
dealings with politicians than usual. This got us thinking about
ways to communicate science effectively to this special
audience. Have a read of our tips and experiences below and see
what you think.
And we’d love to hear about your experiences in this area if
you’d like to share them with us. Just drop us an email.
Regards,
Econnect Communication
Jenni Metcalfe, Michelle Riedlinger, Lynne Goodwin, Mary
O’Callaghan, Sarah Bartlett and
Melina Georgousakis
In this issue: Communicating
with politicians
Meeting your
MP - 12 tips
Explaining
the science
Getting to your
pollie
Surf club
Quotation of the month
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Meeting your MP - 12 tips
By Michelle Riedlinger
The CHASS ‘Expanding Horizons’ event held at Parliament
House this week attracted over 220 early career
researchers from around Australia.
These tips helped them prepare for meeting with MPs:
1. Ask
your politician how much time they have to speak with you.
2. Be
prepared to spend five minutes or 45 minutes with them.
3. Introduce
yourself, explain what you do and what you want out of the
meeting e.g. raise their interest in the area, engender more
support, or supply contacts. Ask them to do something concrete.
4.
Make sure you can cover this
information in one minute—it may be all you get!
5. Be
honest and friendly.
6. Research
your MP and make your work or issue as relevant to them as you
can so they understand why you are meeting with them. Do they
have a research or education facility in their electorate? Are
they on a committee that deals with your issue? Do they have a
personal interest in the area?
7. Give
good examples. How much money can be saved? What are the social
benefits for individuals or groups?
8. Tell
them stories—they will remember them.
9. Provide
solutions to problems rather than just problems—they hear enough
problems.
10. Stick
to your area and leave the policy to the parliamentarians.
11. Try
to link with current issues. Read the paper and listen to the
news. Make your project or issue relevant to general community
concerns.
12. Maintain
as much contact as you can. Leave them with some written
information, write to them thanking them for meeting with you,
invite them to visit you, and keep them updated on your
progress.
Explaining the science
By
Mary O'Callaghan
Scientific jargon, lack of clarity, and mixed messages can deter
politicians from taking action.
The need for expressing science in plain language was made
brutally clear in Adelaide this week by the Hon. Rory McEwen,
South Australian Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries,
who officially opened Climate Connect 2006, the forum of the
Managing Climate Variability program.
Before an audience of 110 climate scientists, meteorologists,
agricultural scientists, policy makers, natural resource
managers and farmers, the minister led by example in his use of
plain language:
“You [scientists] are responsible for communicating your
science. You need to explain it in plain layman’s language that
we can understand”, he said. “If you can’t explain your science,
that’s your fault”.
Getting to your pollie
By Lynne
Goodwin
In the age of global exchange, it's simply a matter of pressing
the send key on your email server to contact anyone anywhere in
the world.
But what if you need to communicate directly with your local or
even national politician when you need council or parliamentary
help?
Firstly, it's helpful to consider the finer points of political
communication with the general public. When the Australian
Government's online content regulation bill was introduced in
1999, there were so many protest emails sent to MPs that the
Parliament House email system crashed.
Since upgrading their system to cope with such surges, costly
outages like that very rarely happen now.
What does happen though is that politicians become deluged with
email and very rarely have the time, the patience or the
resources to read them.
One Tasmanian politician however, encourages online
communication. “Email makes me more accessible - it is very
convenient and instantaneous. The internet is an important
empowering technology, and certainly not just for us
politicians. It has also enabled citizens to become much more
involved in democracy and policy."
Surf club
Australian Parliament website
www.aph.gov.au
You can get all the help you need for communicating with your
politician from the
Australian Parliament website.
It includes lists of each member's email address, personal
websites and lists of who sits on which committees, indicating
their areas of interest.
Here are some of the site's suggestions on how to increase your
chances of a positive response:
- Say
who you are and the electorate you are from.
- Send
your email to your local representative or the minister/shadow
minister responsible for the area you are commenting on, not
everyone.
- Put
the subject of your email clearly at the top so it can be
forwarded to the appropriate person if necessary.
- Keep
the irritation factor low. Most politicians say they delete
emails they regard as spam without reading them.
If you are not sure who is interested in your topic, check the
parliamentary committees. A list is available on the
Australian Parliament website.
Quotation of the month
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned
citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that
ever has.”
Margaret Mead, anthropologist. |
