State Members of Parliament

Your local Members of Parliament are the people your neighbourhood elected to represent you in the Victorian State Parliament.

They are likely to have a strong interest in local issues, and will at least want to hear about what you are doing to make your neighbourhood more walk-friendly. They might also be willing to support you, including by:

• writing a letter of endorsement for your work, which you can then show to other groups or people to improve your credibility;
• telling you about funding or grants that you might be able to apply for;
• publicly supporting your work, by appearing at your meetings and events or agreeing to be interviewed by local media; or
• advocating within their own party for changes to policies, funding or laws that would help you.

Your local member might be a member of the Government, the opposition or a minor party, or they might be an independent.

In some ways, Government members probably have more power, because they are able to directly influence current government policy. On the other hand, they are likely to be bound by the stated policy of their party – so might not be willing to publicly support you if what you want conflicts with what the government has said they are going to do.

If your local member is in opposition, or is an independent or aligned with a smaller party, they will have less opportunity to directly influence government policy. However, politicians who aren’t in the governing party have more freedom to criticise government – so they might be able to put some pressure on the current government to change its policy or allocate some funding.

Doing your research

Before you get in touch, it’s worth doing some research. Find out:

• which party your local MP belongs to;
• what that party’s policy is on the issue you’re interested in – such as traffic management, environmental sustainability, or improving community connections; and
• what the government is currently doing or funding in your local area – or what they’ve promised to do and haven’t yet started!

You are more likely to be successful in your approach to a local politician if you can:

• Demonstrate that there is broad community support for what you’re trying to do, or that it would significantly benefit the community (see building your case).
• Align your cause with their stated policy (or, to be cynical, use their rhetoric to make your case).

Getting in touch

• Send an email or letter with some information about your group: addresses for local members are on the Victorian Parliament website (members of the Legislative Assembly are called MPs, members of the Legislative Council are called MLCs).
• Call his or her electoral office (not parliamentary office) and make an appointment.
• Find out if there’s a ‘Community Cabinet’ or other meet-the-public type event coming up in your local area, and go along.
• Invite them to one of your meetings or events by phone, letter or email, or putting put together a ‘walking tour’ of the places that you most want to change, and inviting them to join you.