Why December and January are critical for advocacy ahead of Australia’s Election and Federal Budget
In the lead up to the Australian Election and Federal Budget it is critical for organisations to begin looking at their advocacy priorities.
By Rory Parker
With the Federal Election expected in early May, and the Budget being held in March - organisations may be under the false pretence of having time up their sleeve.
The Australian government is currently taking and encouraging organisations to make Pre-Budget submissions until January 2025. There are plenty of benefits to making submissions to the Government if organisations are looking to influence public policy and funding priorities.
Some of those benefits include:
Having direct input to the Governments priorities
Building relationships and credibility
Enhancing visibility for underserved topics
The opportunity to align with Government priorities
In saying this, the submission process is only one part of a broader advocacy strategy. Organisations need to engage with members of parliament as they are directly involved in shaping policies, making decisions and representing the interests of the public. Engaging with members of parliament helps to ensure that your organisation's priorities align with those of the government’s.
My recommendation in engaging with members of parliament is multifaceted and can be achieved in a number of ways. Firstly, and most importantly, always ensure that your approach aligns with that of your organisation's values. For example, wanting to lean toward a more ‘right wing’ approach/party if your organisation leans more left – this will only come back to hurt you and create mistrust around your organisation. What you should be doing instead, is finding where your organisation’s values overlap with those of the person you’re speaking to. You likely won’t agree on everything, so find what it is that you do agree on and lean into that.
As I mentioned, submissions are only a small part of the engagement of members of parliament – you can also engage in very simple and obvious ways such as hosting events, scheduling meetings, leveraging personal connections, writing emails and letters and attending public events.
Tactics like sending across sector insights, local relevance and research will help your organisations advocacy and is something that can be kept on file for government to refer to. Looking more proactively, you can target members of parliament indirectly through public events, media visibility and social media messaging. These are all effective ways of getting your organisation’s message across to members of parliament to make you stand out from the crowd.
Despite the expectation of a May Election, there are increasing rumours that Labor will call an Election immediately after Australia Day for a March voting day.
What this means is that it is extremely critical that organisations get Election commitments in December or January as it limits your window to push for advocacy leaving you with a significantly less amount of time to secure commitments from political parties.
Not only will your window be reduced but political parties will be in a critical decision period and finalising their policy agendas. As an organisation you want to get your priorities aligned before the Election cycle becomes too intense to participate in.
If you are interested in learning more or getting advice or assistance with advocacy ahead of the Federal Budget and Election please do not hesitate to reach out to us.
Tanck offers advisory services in government engagement, advocacy, stakeholder strategy, and communications.
We share our political expertise and government experience so you can achieve your funding and policy goals.
