Members Only - May Advocacy Bulletin
Dear TNA Members,
As we approach the federal election in two weeks, on Saturday 21st May, please take five minutes to learn a bit more, and to support TNA’s advocacy work. It might just be to vote well in your own electorate. Below are some resources to help with whatever level of advocacy you can do. If you can share these widely with your colleagues, friends and family that will be a great help!
Regards,
Nicole and the TNA team
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HOW TO VOTE (WELL)
TNA’s final Champions of Arts and Culture Online Meet-up on 10th May will be all about the voting and election process. Guest speaker Bill Browne, Senior Researcher, Democracy & Accountability Program, the Australia Institute. More info and register here.
If you want to refresh your knowledge or learn how to vote, the Australian Electoral Commission has resources including a practice template for voting in the House of Representatives (lower house) and the Senate (upper house). It gives you feedback!
WHO ARE MY CANDIDATES?
Find your electorate's candidates here: put in your postcode and the list of your Candidates for both houses are shown. Then do your own research/googling on who they are, and what they represent. Wikipedia has some links to news articles and other sites.
Tips:
Not all Independents are alike – many of them standing are not a part of the ‘Teal’ independent movement.
On the ballot papers, the names of some of the minor parties might not actually describe what they represent. We recommend you do some research on the parties ahead of time. (e.g. In the Senate there are 79 candidates in Vic, 75 in NSW, 79 in QLD, 58 in WA, 51 in SA, 39 in TAS, 23 in ACT, and 17 in the NT).
HOW TO PROMOTE SUPPORT FOR ARTS AND CULTURE
The Australia Council has finalised PDFs for each of Australia’s 151 federal electorates. These are around 19 pages per electorate, and provide information on audience engagement with the arts, ticket buying trends across arts and sport, and cultural and creative employment and business. Your candidates will care about these stats for their local area!
You could send yours to each of your candidates in the House of Representatives (usually less than 10), with a cover note such as: “I am writing to ask what you are doing to support the arts and cultural sector. As you may know, 82% of people in Bass attend cultural venues or events. They care!”
Or you could continue to use social media to promote the messaging campaign we are running with other peak bodies: Art and Culture are Everywhere, and Art and Culture are Essential.
WHAT TNA IS CALLING FOR
TNA is calling for all parties and candidates to commit to the development of a National Cultural Plan, which was the Number One bi-partisan recommendation from the federal Inquiry into Creative industries and Institutions. We have written to or spoken with more than 40 members of parliament and candidates, and supported TNA members to do the same. Read more about our call.