Participating in democracy

Democracy ensures that there are levers waiting to be pushed, but we have to get off our backsides and do the pushing ourselves. In this post I’m soliciting suggestions about where we can find the most useful levers. (Overseas readers are encouraged to contribute – how things work in your neck of the woods might suggest something useful about ours.)
In an earlier post on the ominous climate change policy signals out of the new government, Karen commented: Can we submit something? Start a petition? Idiot/ Morgue?
idiot replied: I expect the inquiry will be open to public submissions, and it might be worth drafting one. That’s good – but I want to take these ideas a bit further.
What can be done to steer John Key and his National government away from the harmful climate change denial of their ACT partners?
* start a petition and submit it to the new government
* make a submission to the inquiry, when it happens
* write a letter to Prime Minister-elect John Key or to other National MPs
? write a letter to the newspaper (:P)
? call your local MP and express your concern
? write a letter to a Ministry (which one?)
I am a total believer in the value of letters from members of the public.
Which are the best ideas in here in terms of delivering change? What am I missing?
In particular, it is worth noting that there is a very clear business incentive to pursue the Emissions Trading Scheme, as pointed out by Gareth at Hot Topic:
“The uncertainty created by the shelving of the current emissions trading scheme legislation is already having a significant impact on the New Zealand economy,” he writes, then details several examples. This should give us even more levers to push. We know that business leaders have the ear of National and ACT – can we put pressure on them with letters, for instance? Who would be worth writing to?

12 thoughts on “Participating in democracy”

  1. Calling your MP is always good, particularly if they’re a National MP holding a newly-won urban or provincial city seat. As for writing to Ministers, the relevant ones are Nick Smith (Minister for Climate Change Issues), Murry McCully (Foreign Affairs) and Tim Groser (Trade).
    But the real lever is overseas, in the form of pressure from foreign governments and foreign markets. If we can get some European green organisations to criticise us for our sudden switch to denialism, in a way that threatens tourism and exports, then business and the government will listen. The problem is getting this to happen…

  2. Idiot: that´s an interesting approach, actually. Electro-solidarity. 🙂 Or info-solidarity? E-solidarity?
    But yeah. I am all for asymmetrical approaches.

  3. A petition and letters do seem like a good place to start building a campaign…
    I think these things work better if we make things as easy as possible for people… Website with form letters and email addresses of relevant cabinet ministers? An old style postcard campaign?
    Limit each letter to one or two demands (with clear logical justifications)?… easier to agree and build support than for a broader environmental campaign…
    Where should we start anyway?
    Roll out of ETS to continue as planned as an interim measure, while the select committee considers ways to extend it and give it more teeth?? 🙂
    Public transport and rail freight networks to be funded in priority to new roading projects?

  4. Also like Idiot’s idea of overseas pressure… building a campaign here makes that more likely to occur… I wonder whether organisations like Forest and Bird or the Green Party might have overseas contacts they could bring to bear? Is there some relevant UN committee we could write to?

  6. Although referenda in NZ are not binding, I think they’re a very good way of getting the govt’s attention, but they need to be able to be put into effect and simple. Neither of which is particularly easy. The referendum where we were asked whether we should have more fire fighters (if I recall correctly) was worth less than the paper it was written on, was embarrassing if you even began to think about the question and was only ever going to be ignored. The question needs to be sensible, plausible and possible. At least that’s the way it works in Switzerland (except that the referenda here are binding).-

  7. Billy: it’s taking a wider view, and treating _everything_ as a vehicle.
    Kiwi in Zurich: you need the signatures of 10% of the electorate – about 300,000 people – to spark a referendum. That’s something for the big boys. (I’d also suggest that they’re also the best people to run a petition campaign, because they have the resources and the footsoldiers to do it properly. But a viral “email the Minister” thing could be good)

  8. Obama’s stealing the thunder.
    Man we had such a chance to be the world leaders, in this area, so many years ago. We even elicit the whole tourist thing as “clean and green” and we now fuck it all up by dropping the ball.
    If there is anything I can do here, give me a shout out.

  9. Stop me if this sounds stupid, but is it worth approaching the people who run the Avaaz petitions and invite them to run one of their email campaigns about this backdown by Nat-Act on the ETS etc?
    Avaaz regularly get thousands of email signatures on matters of climate change and human rights, and they represent an international voice.
    Can we shame John Key into considering the environment?

  10. Dan – Avaaz are an interesting lot to approach. I have emailed them to see if I can get into dialogue with someone who might give me some further ideas.

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