My first contact with members of parliament began at
an early age in having Al Grasby around for a family BBQ and watching as he
happily got thrown into the local pool because he was the MP who had arranged
for the funding. He was a friend with
everyone, his catch cry was my good friend so and so, but I think my old dad
was actually mates with Al Grasby for quite a long time.
I grew up, Al
stayed dry and in the 90’s I discovered email.
In those early days email was new and the Turnbulised thing, innovation
without really being innovative. Later I
found out the silver bodgie was responsible for my closing my first email
account because his company wanted to control how much I sent and to whom. I discovered anonymous email. I emailed a certain MP maybe 20 times from
anonymous names taken from white pages to try and get firstly a footpath in my
suburb then things like bus services and then keeping the footpath. I had no qualms in doing that. I had “found” artefacts and canoe trees and
blind legless pub patrons who needed protected and managed to help get a
temporary drain system turned into a proper water course for the native birds
that flocked there. I also posted
printed pages announcing to lumberjacks to be very careful around there because
some of the trees had been spiked.
Spiking a tree was very dangerous to a lumberjack so none of the trees
got touched and the area missed out on a bridge and quite a few houses. I never ever hammered a spike into a tree,
it’s like having a gun in the boot, just too easy to do and too dangerous. The
developer didn’t like me, but even back then I admitted to being an obnoxious
bastard.
Skip ahead a couple of decades to the now and I am a
victim of my own cunning plan. Not too long
ago we the people just weren’t being heard by our governments and now we the people are being
actively ignored. Email has grown into
social media of all sorts and the passive not bothering to hear has turned into
active ignoring of we the people.
When I first started with emails MPs had to respond
within 3 weeks as part of their obligations to stay in touch with how their
electorates feel about anything. That
got extended until now an occasional automated response is as good as it gets,
unless you are like me and get totally ignored by just about everyone working
in parliament. It got so bad that Senator Brandis destroyed my emails about a
possible crime before even considering forwarding them to the department for investigation.
Yes I do have FOI proof, I did set him up for it but who can I tell? They all
ignore me.
The rules for the now are set out in the Parliament
House web site dealing with Senators and Members and it tells
the world that “Members are elected for a 3 year term and when in parliament
take part in debate on proposed laws and public policy, representing the views
of the people in their electorate.”
A couple of pages on in that web
site we are told “One of a Member’s most important skills is communicating—receiving,
understanding and evaluating information from many sources, and passing on
information and opinions in Parliament and elsewhere—to the Government and to
individuals and groups.
Being well informed and having
up to date information is vital if a Member is to understand and debate the
great range of legislation and other issues dealt with by the House and provide
an effective representational link between his or her constituents and the
Parliament.”
It’s their job, the local MPs have to read all
communication and hopefully respond to the communication. For ministers and the
Deputy and Real Prime Minister communication comes from everyone in the
county. Parliament house rules do not
allow MPs to block or ignore or factor out people. Pains in the bum like myself have the right
to be heard and MPs have the obligation to listen and represent our views in
parliament. Communication comes in the
form of letters, still the only way you can guarantee a reply: lick and bic,
lick a stamp and write it by hand.
Emails, facebook, twitter and texts are all valid forms of communication
and must be monitored by MPs and as a voter a response would be nice too.
Lift your game boys and girls and unblock the lot. I
will lead the way and let every pin headed troll back into my online life. Will you do it MPs? Will you follow your own rules of parliament
or just ignore them too?
This is the bit at the end of my blogs should you want to cross my palm with silver
No comments:
Post a Comment