Letters and meetings with MPs and senators
Letter to all MPs ahead of COP26 meeting, November 2021
Ahead of the COP256 meeting in Glasgow, November 2021, the Congress has sent a letter to all MPs urging them to promote/ support more ambitious commitments from the Australian delegation.
Read our letter here
Ahead of the COP256 meeting in Glasgow, November 2021, the Congress has sent a letter to all MPs urging them to promote/ support more ambitious commitments from the Australian delegation.
Read our letter here
Members' letters to MPs
November 2020 — Congress member Savannah McGuirk from Sydney and Bowning NSW initiated a members online letter writing forum.
Savannah explains 'Our experience in writing to MP's has shown that this can be a good start to building productive relationships with our elected representatives. So, to encourage more letter-writing from our members on 4 November we held our first members’ letter-writing workshop'. Savannah hosted the workshop which guided members through the MP letter writing experience. It was great that 85% of the workshop attendees sent a letter to their MP and so far four separate replies have been received. One MP even replied twice!
We plan to hold further workshops in 2021, but if you want to just get straight to it here is a sample letter to get you started.
Some other letter ideas and a jpeg of our logo are on the Resources page.
If you write to your MP please cc a copy and any reply you receive to us at womensclimatecongress@gmail.com. We love to see those replies flooding in and will also publish them on this page! If your MP invites you to meet with your them and you would like some support please let us know.
October 2020 — Congress member, Alison Leigh, lives in Anthony Albanese's electorate and wrote him this letter.
Letters like these really help to build the profile of the Women's Climate Congress. In reply, Mr Albanese's office offered a meeting with his Head of Policy, Andrew Dempster, and Senior Advisor, Skye Laris. Alison, Janet and Kirsten had an online meeting with Andrew and Skye on 23 November and were able to explain the Congress vision and explore options to bring people together to overcome the current polarised positions that are delaying effective and timely action.
If you write something similar to your own MP, please cc your email to womensclimatecongress@gmail.com.
Letters to MPs introducing the Women's Climate Congress
14 September 2020 — we wrote to all MPs to introduce the Congress and request action on climate change.
Thanks to Janet Salisbury, Barbara O'Dwyer and others for work on the letter and to Irene Pellegrino for preparing a spreadsheet for the mail merge and for administrative assistance with the MP meetings. Read our letter here
We were very pleased when we received 12 invitations to meetings.
We have met with Peta Murphy (ALP, Dunkley, Vic), Libby Coker (ALP, Corangamite, Vic), Peter Khalil (ALP, Wills, Vic), Adam Bandt (Leader of the Greens, Melbourne, Vic), Helen Haines (Independent, Indi, Vic), Mark Butler (ALP Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Hindmarsh, SA), Nick Champion (ALP, Spence, SA), Sharon Claydon (ALP, Newcastle, NSW), Pat Conroy (ALP, Shortland, NSW), Josh Wilson (ALP, Fremantle, WA) and Patrick Gorman (ALP, Perth). At every meeting we talked about how to promote women's leadership and voices, ways to bring people together for constructive, nonpartisan discourse towards effective climate action. We are building relationships and a picture of how women might be able to lead nonpartisan action. We also met with Angus Taylor's staff (see above)
Thanks to our members who attended the meetings. 3 members attended most meetings: Janet Salisbury, Kirsten Anker, Lyn Stephens and Barbara Baikie in Canberra; Dawn O'Neil in Corangamite, Annie Parkhill in Wills, Janette Corcoran in Melbourne, Philippa Rowland and Leonie Ebert in Adelaide, and Margaret Alston in Newcastle. it was a huge privilege to share a Zoom with such awesome women from our electorate network!
Letter to the PM, women Coalition MPs and senators, and members of the NCCC Executive
At the end of May, we wrote to the PM and all women members of the Coalition to express our dismay that the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission, appointed by the PM in March has only 2 women members alongside 8 men.
We have also written to the two women members themselves (Jane Halton and Catherine Tanna) as well as the Chair of the committee, Neville Power.
Read our letter here. Thanks to Kirsten Anker for preparing and circulating the letter.
Apart from the obvious gender imbalance on this committee we note that many other groups are also not represented including First Nations people, people with disabilities, representatives of our diverse multicultural community or, indeed, people with diverse views on energy production and the post COVID economy . In line with our vision of a collaborative approach to climate action we suggest that it would be appropriate to explore a different process - one that allows diverse voices to be heard and creative, collaborative solutions to emerge.
Replies
Karen Andrews (Minister for Science, Energy and Resources)
As a result of our letter we were invited to meet with Mr Neville Power (Chair, National COVID-19 Coordination Commission) on 25 June 2020.
At the end of May, we wrote to the PM and all women members of the Coalition to express our dismay that the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission, appointed by the PM in March has only 2 women members alongside 8 men.
We have also written to the two women members themselves (Jane Halton and Catherine Tanna) as well as the Chair of the committee, Neville Power.
Read our letter here. Thanks to Kirsten Anker for preparing and circulating the letter.
Apart from the obvious gender imbalance on this committee we note that many other groups are also not represented including First Nations people, people with disabilities, representatives of our diverse multicultural community or, indeed, people with diverse views on energy production and the post COVID economy . In line with our vision of a collaborative approach to climate action we suggest that it would be appropriate to explore a different process - one that allows diverse voices to be heard and creative, collaborative solutions to emerge.
Replies
Karen Andrews (Minister for Science, Energy and Resources)
As a result of our letter we were invited to meet with Mr Neville Power (Chair, National COVID-19 Coordination Commission) on 25 June 2020.
Letter to National Cabinet
In early May 2020 we sent letters to the Prime Minister, other members of the Federal Cabinet and all members of the National Cabinet (PM and state and territory premiers) formed to manage the COVID-19 outbreak with the advice of the Australian Principle Public Health Committee. We thanked them for the work they have done and suggested that it would be good to continue the arrangement after the COVID-19 response in order to follow a similar, collaborative approach to action on climate change. Read our letter here. Thanks to Toni Hassan and others for work on the letter and to Janet Harris for assistance with distribution.
Replies
The PMs office forwarded our letter to Angus Taylor (Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction): See REPLY
The SA Premier's office forwarded our letter to David Speirs MP (SA Minister for Environment and Water): See REPLY
The Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet, Energy, Resources ad Environment Section replied on behalf of the Premier: See REPLY
Meeting with Zali Steggall
On 23 April 2020, a small group of women from WCC held a virtual meeting with Zali Steggall. We began by talking about WCC and our ambition to create a strong political voice for women and use it to unite disparate voices around climate and important social issues. Zali was interested to hear the story of the International Women’s Congress of 1915.
Zali herself was a lawyer before entering politics. Women still have a way to go to achieve an equal presence in Parliament but as an independent she has felt free to act on her own terms. She finds the present polarisation of politics divisive, and observed that it has the effect of leaving the political centre feeling disenfranchised. Independents enjoy freedom, away from the constraints of party membership and answerable only to one’s electorate. Zali sees many opportunities to collaborate with the other cross-benchers.
A large majority of Australians (80%, according to figures from the Australia Institute) are concerned about climate change: the challenge is to find ways to bring those people together to act. Many things bring us together: our desire for a safe future, farmers’ experiences of drought, and so on. Women’s different voice can bring to the discussion an approach of care and nurture.
Currently, WCC is building a community — through our email list, Facebook group and open meetings — aiming to have members willing to step up in every electorate of Australia to start conversations, build relationships with local members and promote united action. Zali encouraged collaborations with other organisations, such as Country Women's Association, National Council of Women and Women Vote, amongst others. We can engage with the progress of the Climate Change Bill at the Climate Act Now website. The Bill will now probably be presented to parliament in late Spring or early Summer.
We discussed how we are learning from the current COVID-19 emergency that we are part of the global community. Science experts have said that we need to act promptly to safeguard the climate. Both state and federal governments have important roles and there are opportunities to move forward with rebuilding that takes advantage of the opportunities identified by Ross Garnaut, the Gratten Institute and others.
In early May 2020 we sent letters to the Prime Minister, other members of the Federal Cabinet and all members of the National Cabinet (PM and state and territory premiers) formed to manage the COVID-19 outbreak with the advice of the Australian Principle Public Health Committee. We thanked them for the work they have done and suggested that it would be good to continue the arrangement after the COVID-19 response in order to follow a similar, collaborative approach to action on climate change. Read our letter here. Thanks to Toni Hassan and others for work on the letter and to Janet Harris for assistance with distribution.
Replies
The PMs office forwarded our letter to Angus Taylor (Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction): See REPLY
The SA Premier's office forwarded our letter to David Speirs MP (SA Minister for Environment and Water): See REPLY
The Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet, Energy, Resources ad Environment Section replied on behalf of the Premier: See REPLY
Meeting with Zali Steggall
On 23 April 2020, a small group of women from WCC held a virtual meeting with Zali Steggall. We began by talking about WCC and our ambition to create a strong political voice for women and use it to unite disparate voices around climate and important social issues. Zali was interested to hear the story of the International Women’s Congress of 1915.
Zali herself was a lawyer before entering politics. Women still have a way to go to achieve an equal presence in Parliament but as an independent she has felt free to act on her own terms. She finds the present polarisation of politics divisive, and observed that it has the effect of leaving the political centre feeling disenfranchised. Independents enjoy freedom, away from the constraints of party membership and answerable only to one’s electorate. Zali sees many opportunities to collaborate with the other cross-benchers.
A large majority of Australians (80%, according to figures from the Australia Institute) are concerned about climate change: the challenge is to find ways to bring those people together to act. Many things bring us together: our desire for a safe future, farmers’ experiences of drought, and so on. Women’s different voice can bring to the discussion an approach of care and nurture.
Currently, WCC is building a community — through our email list, Facebook group and open meetings — aiming to have members willing to step up in every electorate of Australia to start conversations, build relationships with local members and promote united action. Zali encouraged collaborations with other organisations, such as Country Women's Association, National Council of Women and Women Vote, amongst others. We can engage with the progress of the Climate Change Bill at the Climate Act Now website. The Bill will now probably be presented to parliament in late Spring or early Summer.
We discussed how we are learning from the current COVID-19 emergency that we are part of the global community. Science experts have said that we need to act promptly to safeguard the climate. Both state and federal governments have important roles and there are opportunities to move forward with rebuilding that takes advantage of the opportunities identified by Ross Garnaut, the Gratten Institute and others.