Federal Labor has recently reshuffled its Shadow Cabinet - unveiling the team that will take them to the next election. Terri Butler MP will now have responsibility for the prevention of family violence, and former ACT Chief Minister Senator Katy Gallagher will manage the women’s, homelessness and housing portfolios.
As they settle into their new roles, and decide what policies and funding commitments they want to take to the next election, can you make sure these new shadow ministers put full funding of family violence services at the top of their priority lists?
Take 3 minutes to send them quick personal emails at [email protected] and [email protected].
What should you say?
Here are our tips for putting together a quick and effective email (because we know personal emails from voters have more impact than copy and pastes):
- Introduce yourself - Explain where you live and what you do. If you're a Labor voter or volunteer you may want to mention this.
- Explain the reason you're emailing - Congratulate them on their new portfolio responsibility and let them know that you are very concerned about the federal government's under-funding of family violence services - and are writing to ask them to make the full funding of the family violence services in their portfolio areas a top priority for Labor going into the next election.
- You might want to specifically mention:
- The need for long-term, dedicated, funding - especially for specialist agencies.
- I's critical that all services across the family violence service system are adequately resourced to deliver crisis response. That includes: specialist family and domestic violence services, legal assistance services like Community Legal Centres and Family Violence Prevention Legal Services, Family Support Services, specialist services for women from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, women with disabilities and women from first nations communities.
- That long term investment is needed in a broad range of primary prevention programs, including:
- $2 million a year to kick-start immediate early childhood interventions
- $10 million a year for prevention groups to start work developing resources for schools and training teachers to respect relationships and prevention of violence
- $12 million a year to kick-start a decade long education program to change the attitudes that lead to violence
- Thank the Shadow Minister for their time.
Once you've sent your email, please forward us a copy at [email protected] so we can keep track of all the powerful messages being sent about this important issue.