RSVP

We spent some hours today writing to parliamentarians. In my case the issue was support for the national broadcaster, the ABC. Or rather, in the case of the people I wrote to, the issue was politically driven interference in the ABC’s independence.

Of course Parliamentarians don’t read every letter they get, though their staff might. But they do take account of the sheer volume of correspondence they get on a given issue. So it’s worth writing. Even if your letter isn’t carefully read it can still influence the recipient by adding to the impression of weight.

Some years ago I used to train public servants whose job it was to draft answers to these letters, for Parliamentarians to sign. The trick was to make it seem that the Parliamentarian had read the letter, empathised with the writer and was replying personally to his or her concerns. Often none of these things was true, and often a reply focused on the Government position, not the writer’s concerns.


We’ll see what happens with the ones I wrote today.