Hi
I agree that once you have a direct email you can send them what you want - which is why I talked about home pages. I do not think its a big problem that an email is long, the minister will never see it unless a staffer vets it first, and even then they might only see a staffer's summary first. Ministers almost never have time to read emails directly. If you want a chance of that, you would have to send a hard copy at least: physically post them a letter. Physical letters wont be deleted at the touch of a button, they actually have to reach up and file it in the wastebasket - a little harder to do.
There are some ministers who hide their email - you can't get an email from their posting page. You have to hunt around, check google searches, party (lib, labor etc) sites and so on until you find their email. What I would like is a one stop link: cut and paste to send to 1/ Federal minister and shadow minister for health or 2/ every minister and shadow minister for health in Australia. If we can agree on high priority media outlets (quality reporting, not sensationalism at this point) we should have a convenient one cut and paste section for them too. I also think we should hunt down the federal science advisers and point them at good research and blogs. Science advisers are the watchdogs on science for government: convince them and they will lobby on our behalf, particular if they realize the public health issues.
The primary point of posting pages, without visible email addresses, seems to be an antispam measure. People also have to identify who they are on the post - another security measure. It is more important to be specific about who you are (with a note to please withhold name/address from publication if you wish)than to worry about length. However, one thing is very important about length: don't bury the story. Your number one point has to be at the top of the letter, and any discussion of that point should be the first priority in that letter. Everything else comes later. Usedtobeperkytina has written a number of discussions on this, and I defer to her experience. Short can be good, but long has a point to - it depends on what you are trying to achieve.
I understand burnout from doing these things. My letter to the health ministers is still costing me, although less and less, and it has been some weeks now. The easier we can make this for people, the more people can use our resources to actually send emails and letters.
Bye
Alex
i hadnt even noticed that before and dont have clue what that does.