Our political action group has been leading the charge to lobby politicians for meaningful reform of the aged care sector. They’ve been working with the leadership team to organise the MP mail blitzes and meeting politicians face to face, to tell their stories and ask for aged care reform.
The meetings have been productive with some key wins including:
- Senator Dean Smith forwarding letters from our members directly to the Prime Minister asking for a response,
- the Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing, Mark Butler joining our private Facebook group so he can see the issues firsthand
Our West Australian members Amina Schipp and Yvonne Buters have been particularly active, organising meetings with Federal Members of Parliament, Senators and State members.
For those who are reluctant to join our MP blitz because “writing to MPs makes no difference”, please take heart in the actions that have come about so far. Even before our blitz, our member Cecilia Webster wrote to her MP about aged care – who later read out her letter in parliament.
If we want aged care to be an election issue – and we want to see political action to fix the broken aged care system – we need to engage with politicians. The more people who join us in our letter writing and meeting blitz, the stronger our voice.
If you haven’t already done so, please join us in writing to MPs. It’s not too late – your voice can make a difference.
List of meetings so far
- Dr Anne Aly (Federal Labor MP, WA)
- Mark Butler (Federal Labour, Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing, SA)
- Celia Hammond (Federal Liberal MP, WA)
- Senator Louise Pratt (Federal Labor senator for WA)
- Margaret Quirk MLA (WA Labor)
- Senator Dean Smith (Federal Liberal senator for WA)