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Publications > Youth voices > Aotearoa Youth Voices toolkit > Action guide 6
Action guide 6: Writing to politicians
Have you got something that you want to tell an MP about? Government can only do a good job if it hears from the people it serves!
Everyday politicians make heaps of decisions about things that affect
your community and your life. If you want them to make decisions that
will be good for you, grab a pen and paper and let them know what you
think.
Check out these great reasons for you to get your voice heard by politicians:
-
It is really important for politicians to understand issues from
many different perspectives, including young
people’s points of view.
Hearing young people’s opinions on things helps them to understand
issues from a young person’s perspective. This in turn helps them to
make decisions which are good for young people.
- Lots of politicians DO care and want to hear from young people!
Especially Ministers who have a lot to do with young people like the
Ministers of Youth Affairs or Education.
- Letter writing and emailing politicians WORKS. Heaps of
government decisions are influenced all the time by
letters from everyday Kiwis.
Some big environmental campaigns, for example,
have been really successful because hundreds of
people wrote in with the same message. In this
situation, every letter counted towards a BIG message to the Government.
So you could write a letter by yourself OR you could organise a
letter writing campaign on a particular issue and get lots of young
people writing in with the same message.
Give MPs your message
The politicians you see on TV or hear on the radio debating in
parliament are Members of Parliament (MPs). Every area in New Zealand
has an MP who has been elected to represent the people in that
community (electorate MP).
Other MPs are called “list MPs”. Before the general election all
political parties write a “party list”. This list has all of the names
of that party’s candidates on it. All of the names are ranked according
to which people the party wants to get into parliament. So the leader
of a party would be in the number one slot and a new candidate would be
somewhere near the bottom. So a list MP is someone who has been elected
from the party list instead being elected by the community.
MPs belong to different political parties that your parents,
friends who are 18 or older and the guy down the road voted for.
MPs bring the word from their communities to parliament for the
Government to hear. The Government is made up of MPs from the political
party with the most votes at the last general election.
So the first thing you need to work out is what kind of MP you need to write to:
- List MPs
- Electorate MPs
- Cabinet Ministers
- The Prime Minister.
Who should I write to?
Electorate MPs are usually interested in what people from their
electorate (the area that they get their votes from) think about an
issue. Remember that electorate MPs are elected by their local
community to serve and represent them in parliament – that includes
representing young people.
Being a Cabinet Minister means that you are one of the decision-makers
in the Government (the party or groups of parties that has a majority
in Parliament), and you have been given responsibility to look after a
particular area (which is called a portfolio) eg Minister of Health.
So
if you have a concern about a national issue that fits under a
Minister’s portfolio you should write to them so they know what you
think.
You have probably heard about some of the really BIG Ministers like the
Minister of Health or the Minister of Education. Did you know that
there is a Minister for Food Safety and a Minister for Disarmament and
Arms Control?
There is also a Minister of Youth Affairs who is our Minister here at
the Ministry of Youth Development! For more information see this page: Minister of
Youth Affairs
Ministers have to read lots to understand and make decisions about the
special area their ministry deals with. A group of Ministers plus the
Prime Minister make up the crew in the Cabinet.
Cabinet is the central decision-making group of government. It makes
decisions on important stuff like: big issues facing New Zealand, new
laws, current issues and international agreements.
One of the international agreements, which relates to young people, is
the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCROC). If
you’re under 18, your human rights are listed in UNCROC.
The Prime Minister (PM) is the leader of the Government and you should
write to the PM about big national and international issues.
How can I contact them?
It is easy to find out who your local electorate MP is. Check out
your electorate MPs contact details on the New Zealand Parliament website.
And, you can find out who the Cabinet Ministers are, what their portfolios
are and their contact details by going to the Beehive website.
You can write to any MP, Minister or the Prime Minister for FREE (no
stamps needed in New Zealand, just chuck in the post!). Just remember
to put their full name and the address below:
Freepost Parliament
PO Box 18888
Wellington
What would I write to them about?
Ministers expect to hear from groups of people who are trying to get
change on a particular issue that the Minister is responsible for. For
example, if you want to let the Government know what you think about
NCEA, you could write to the Minister of Education. If you are
concerned about pollution, you could write to the Minister for the
Environment.
What Ministers hear through letters and emails from every day people is
really important in helping them make decisions that affect us all.
Will they write back to me?
Most MPs respond to letters from people in their community. This letter
will probably talk about their party's ideas and their own ideas on the
issue you have written about.
Ministers get help from their staff and from the Ministries they are responsible for to respond to letters.
What should I write?
Here are some important things to help you get your message across:
- Explain why a particular issue is important to you
and your community/young people or New Zealanders
as a whole.
- Don’t think that the politician will already know
everything. Remember you may be educating them on a youth perspective or about some facts they don’t know about!
- Be clear and to the point.
- Be constructive.
- Always use facts.
- Make sure that you state your name and address, so that they can write back to you.
Copyright Ministry of Youth Development 2006
This action guide is one of a series of guides in the Ministry of Youth Development's
Aotearoa Youth Voices tool kit.
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