Get involved

We believe that every child in Australia should have access to high quality, affordable and sustainable early learning services and therefore the best start in life.

In order to achieve this vision, in addition to ACA’s ongoing engagement with government, MPs and political candidates prior to the 2022 federal election, we call upon our sector stakeholders to engage with government and make sure your voice is heard.

The resources on this website are designed to help you engage with your local political candidates, starting from how to approach them, to what to say.

Here’s an overview of what you need to do:

Identify

Identify your local Federal Electorate Member of Parliament (MP) or State Electorate, depending on which level of government you think is more appropriate to contact regarding your issue – you may wish to contact both.

To find out which Federal Electorate your centre is located in click here. Click on the name of the electorate to see the current MP.

Contact

Contact your Member of Parliament (MP) and other local area candidates in writing.

The best way to do this is to write a letter, as an attachment within an email.

Whilst it is useful to talk to some of the most important issues in the letter, it’s important not to get too specific, thus providing an incentive for the MP or candidate to meet with you. You can download a template letter here for this purpose.

Alternatively you may like to contact your local ACA state body to work closely with them – you ACA state body can contact the relevant political stakeholders and also host the meeting, explaining ACA’s top 4 election priorities.

Visit our Resources page to peruse all of the materials available to you for engaging with politicians. 

Follow Up

Follow the written contact up with a phone call.

We recommend a follow up phone call one or two days after sending the email, to ask if the letter was received and ask if a meeting time could be set up.

It is important to be cordial, polite and patient. Remember that MPs and candidates have a huge portfolio of issues to cover, and they require notice in order to make themselves available.

Prepare

If you are lucky enough to organise a meeting, be sure to prepare your key talking points in advance.

We recommend that you select the top three important issues most likely to impact your service from the selection of policy fact sheets on the Resources page, and follow through with the recommendations provided in these documents.

We believe that with the right policy and financial frameworks in place, Australia could be a world leader in the delivery of high quality ECEC within 10 years.

We greatly appreciate the collective efforts of the early learning sector, along with the families that use these services, in lobbying all sides of politics with a view to ensuring that every child in Australia has access to two years of kindergarten/preschool programs in high quality early learning environments, therefore giving them the best start in life.