While imagining political lobbying may evoke suited professionals, big business and slick CEOs, it is perfectly legitimate for rank-and-file union members to be treading the halls of Parliament (or Congress).

Below are two pieces of advice to keep in mind when preparing to lobby parliamentarians – whether local MPs in their electorate or Ministers in Canberra. (Of course, the fact that you should carefully plan before lobbying any MPs goes without saying.)

Tip 1: Members of Parliament get lobbied almost every day

MPs are constantly lobbied by special interest groups, businesses, not-for-profits, community groups, constituents, and other unions. All of these groups think they have a strong case to make. Most of them are asking for Governments support – which usually means more money.

The point is: don’t assume you’re the only people lobbying that MP on your issue. In all likelihood the employer your union covers, business peak bodies and numerous other groups also have an interest in the issue and are actively lobbying parliamentarians. Take this into account

Tip 2: MPs have limited time; don’t waste it

While in Parliament, MPs have numerous obligations and tight schedules. Senators have prayers in the morning, Reps have question time at 2pm. They also have Parliamentary Committees. At any time, they can be interrupted by the “ringing of the bells” – indicating that they are required in the chamber.

Even in their electorate office, MPs have lots of meetings and commitments. You’re more likely to have extra time in their electorate office, but don’t assume the MP you’re meeting has the day free to talk with you. Openings, citizenship ceremonies, official engagements, meetings with constituents are all possible interruptions and limitations.

Of course, all MPs also have party obligations and engagements which can cut down on time they can meet with you.

The point is: If you can’t get your point across in 15 minutes, then you are probably wasting your time.

From the horse’s mouth

Senator for NSW Doug Cameron, former National Secretary of the AMWU, agreed to give some advice to the NTEU (the union I work for) about lobbying in Parliament. Definitely worth watching.

Parliamentary Lobbying – Lessons from the other side – with Senator Doug Cameron from NTEU Victoria on Vimeo.

International Women’s Day (8 March) is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. In some places like China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, IWD is a national holiday. The first IWD was run in 1911.

Of course, as we celebrate this day, some ignorant people in the media are spreading the ludicrous idea that we should also have a “Men’s Day”. This kind of wrong-headed view justifies the continued celebration of IWD. International Women’s Day comes from the centuries of struggle for equality, justice and dignity. Men on the other hand (as a gender) have been privileged and not suffered systemic discrimination or oppression. There’s nothing to celebrate, no discrimination overcome, no rights won.

Calling for a “Men’s Day” just underscores the lack of understanding that many people have about the history of International Women’s Day. Something for the new National Curriculum perhaps?

(Note: some men – and women – have overcome great injustice such as class or racial discrimination, which is why we have Labour and May Day, or in the US Black History Month. In this case, we celebrate the gains and successful struggles of both men and women.)

UPDATE:

There’s a great post over at The Punch:

On the contrary, if we ignore the situation of girls and women around the world, if we miss the point of International Women’s Day, we will lose the opportunity to create a world of healthier, more educated and wealthier communities; we will condemn girls to early marriage, abuse, illiteracy, unemployment and maternal mortality.

My argument is simple: blocking ads can be devastating to the sites you love. I am not making an argument that blocking ads is a form of stealing, or is immoral, or unethical, or makes someone the son of the devil. It can result in people losing their jobs, it can result in less content on any given site, and it definitely can affect the quality of content. It can also put sites into a real advertising death spin. As ad revenues go down, many sites are lured into running advertising of a truly questionable nature.

Post author Ken Fisher asks his readers to turn off their Ad Blockers (which you can download here if you use Firefox, or here if you use Chrome). If you don’t like ads, you should subscribe to a paid, no ad version, or not visit the site altogether.

What Ken is asking is for his readers to allow themselves to be commodified by people like him, sold to his advertisers. Clearly, the large number of his readers who use Ad Blockers don’t like being sold. To complain about this, and try to guilt people into turning off Ad Blocker is futile. Ken talks a lot about the people whose jobs rely on advertising revenue, who’s livelihoods are allegedly at risk by use of Ad Blockers.

In my view, online businesses like Ars Technica need to adapt and change their business model in light of an increasing number of people who use Ad Blockers. Perhaps they need to significantly increase the offering for their paid subscription offering. Or diversify their offering to include premium news or content. Perhaps they could offer a paid syndication of their content to other sites.

Of course Ken already addresses my point:

Invariably someone else will pop in and tell me that it’s not their fault that our business model sucks. My response is simple: you either care about the site’s well-being, or you don’t. As for our business model sucking, we’ve been here for 12 years, online-only. Not many sites can say that.

Basically, if you like his site, you should suffer ads. He’s not changing. He’s just going to keep complaining while his revenues slowly decrease.