Australian Politicians
Like most Western countries, Australian Parliaments have two houses. The Upper House is supposed to be a house of Review, to check the Bills or Laws passed by the Lower House. In fact, this only works when the opposite Political Party is in power. Otherwise, the Upper House merely rubber stamps the Bills passed by the Lower House. As at 2016 in Australia, we do have opposite Political Parties in the Canberra Federal Government which means that at least some of the crazier Bills are discussed and many are not passed.
If you haven't already done so, please read the article on "It is my Will" and see if it applies to your letter. An excellent booklet is available here:
http://clra.info/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Your-Will-Be-Done-by-Arthur-Cresby.pdf
Always be courteous to your hard working Politicians. You may not agree with their views and you may take a very strong stand. However, courteous behaviour is always preferable.
To contact our Politicians, we can telephone them, meet with them write letter or send emails. The following pages concentrate on writing or emailing them.
To email Politicians, choose the Australian Politicians you wish to email. (Note NT, SA and TAS are not yet complete.) Click to open the appropriate page: Federal Politicians, NSW Politicians, NT Politicians, QLD Politicians, SA Politicians, TAS Politicians and VIC Politicians.
To write bulk letters to Politicians, it is important to note that each State Data Base has different Headings and therefore the Mail Merge Template must be different for each State. Therefore, there are separate pages for each State and the Federal Government.
In general though, the following may be used as a guide. This discussion uses an old version of Word, so your instructions may be different.
This is a draft page on Feb 29, 2016. It is a work in progress.
1. Prepare your letter. To make it easier to fold and place letters into envelopes, it is better to make the letter a single page. Two or more pages require collating and so on. If you have a a printer that prints on two sides, that makes it easier.
2. Select the appropriate Mail Merge template for the State you are about to print letters for.
3. Paste your letter into the Template. Place your address and date at the top of the template, and your name at the bottom of the letter. Here's a sample.
Sample Letter
Your address 1
Suburb
State, Postcode
Date
Dear {{Title}} {{Surname}} {{Honorific}}
Member of the {{Political Party}}
Your letter, with photos, charts and whatever.
It is my Will that ....
Yours sincerely,
Your Name
4. Run the Mail Merge.
5. Print the letters.
6. Select the envelopes and do the same.