Submission – Loose Template
Hello everyone, we have only one week left to get our submissions in, so I have put together a very loose template, with a “key focus” when it comes to our demands, and some hints to help you structure your submission and ease your way into harnessing that writer’s voice.
The people assessing the submissions do not expect the public to be sending in professional, highly technical reports full of scientific facts and references. So please do not listen to know-it-alls who will tell you otherwise.
More to the point, your own experiences, stories or understanding of the issues can make for a very powerful submission, one that can have real impact.
So find a moment where you can sit yourself down with a coffee, or wine, a beverage that relaxes you, to discover exactly what it is you wish to say.
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1. Both my original petition and last week’s update were written with the submission process in mind…so they each have numerous hints and notions that can readily be explored in a submission. The comments at the end of the petition can also be a great source of ideas and inspiration. Your own friends, too, can be an enormous resource, especially once you’ve finished and need someone you can trust to read through your work.
2. Your submission can be written pretty much in any way that you feel comfortable with, as long as it is clear and to the point. It can be written in letter format, or report format, or point form, or you can tackle it by writing headings to group together all you wish to say. You can write it in rhyming couplets if you feel that poetry will best get your message across, or you can rap it out, street style, but your poetic skills would want to be pretty good in both cases!
3. Your submission needs to be addressed to:
Submission to the Review of the Public Health
and Wellbeing Regulations 2009,
Arbovirus Control
Submissions can be sent by clicking on this link:
https://engage.vic.gov.au/phwr-sunset-review
then scrolling down to the 'Formal submission' heading
and clicking on the category 'Arbovirus control',
then uploading your document using the File upload
and clicking on Submit.
4. Your submission should try to cover the following topics…not necessarily in the order given:
-Who you are.
-Why you are writing this submission.
-What you object to in the legislative changes.
-Why you object.
-What the consequences might be to you, or your environment or your community if these legislative changes are passed.
-What you would like to see regarding the legislative changes, what safeguards for the environment and communities should be put in place.
5. Your submission will have to include your name and your contact details. If you have any relevant experience or expertise in the particular area you are trying to influence then this information should also be provided. If you wish to remain anonymous (many submissions are made public) you have the right to request anonymity. All of this information is usually given in the first paragraph of your submission.
6. Logically, once you have introduced yourself, you would launch straight into why you are writing this submission. And in fact, the above topics are listed in the order that I, myself, find most logical…but you may have other ideas. Once you’ve introduced yourself, you may break into a story that is relevant to your field of expertise or your particular take on the legislation under scrutiny…it is totally up to you how you engineer your thinking on the page…
7. Overall, this is a broad subject which centres around legislative changes that will give a government the right to spray your environment and community without consulting you and without your consent, so your discussion of the following inter-related issues can be wide-ranging:
Environment
Health of all species, small and large, not just human
Food Chain, bees, other vital insects
Maladaptive response to global warming
Mosquito control through more natural methods
Economics, local produce, tourist dollars
Your rights as a citizen
8. You do not need to cover all the above issues. If you so wish, you could base your submission exploring one issue only. For example, you might be somebody with a number of health problems, and so focus solely on the damaging effects such spraying would have on your health. Or you might work as a wholesaler, selling local produce, and so you might document the likely effects of broad scale mosquito spraying where you live. Focused submissions can often pack a real punch.
9. If you are someone who loves teasing out your arguments on many different levels, feel free to do so. If you are someone who is incredibly busy, maybe the perfect submission for you would be a super short piece stating who you are and how you would like to see the proposed legislation take our environment and communities into account. Always work with yourself, never against.
10. And always limit yourself to what you know, especially if you are passionate about it. Trying to write about something you know little about can be a recipe for disaster, and an incredibly stressful undertaking. Writing from your passion, on the other hand, even though it may seem limited, can often make for inspired reading, because it has come directly from the heart.
11. At some point…possibly in the first couple of paragraphs, or in the final paragraph (my preference)…or both to really drive the point home…you will have to express the following “key focus”:
The legislative changes must be based on an “opt in” system whenever the authorities wish to propose a broad scale spraying program, not an “opt out” system – meaning that residents must be consulted well before the proposed spraying and actively choose to participate, by signing a form, to “opt in” to have their personal properties sprayed.
An opt out system is not adequate because homeowners are not consulted, but are sent a letter a short time beforehand to inform them of the spraying, which can result in letters not being delivered, or letters delivered to homeowners who are away for a couple of days, or letters arriving and not allowing homeowners enough time to get away before the spraying takes place, etc.
12. When writing your submission, explore a little to see what you are capable of, without letting that hyper-negative self-monitor we are all burdened with get in the way. You will definitely find your writing style if you don’t panic or worry that what you’re saying isn’t colourful enough or flowing enough or that your piece isn’t long enough, etc. A brilliant submission doesn’t necessarily need colour or flow, and it certainly doesn’t need length. In fact, it could well be six paragraphs, each made up of two very short sharp sentences.
13. Your submission tells our lawmakers how you feel about the way their actions are depriving you of your rights and stripping your environment of its beauty and complexity, not to mention its life-giving sustenance. Your submission needs nothing more than your truth, coming from your voice.
I hope this proves helpful…