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Your MP is counting on you not to ask.

They’re busy. They’ve got lunches with the big end of town, and galas funded by the Minerals Council. The Hotels Association, the tobacco lobby and Business Council are on their case, too. Not to mention the powerbrokers and party elders to appease so as to make sure their next pre-selection is in the bag.

That’s a lot of vested interests for your MP to fit in one day, NEVILLE. That’s why they’re counting on not having to hear from you too. People like us are supposed to remain the silent minority, and to leave lobbying to lobbyists, so that they can get on with business as usual.

But in this still new Parliament, more than most that have come before it, we need to make sure that the voices of the 650,000 Australians behind the GetUp movement are heard loud and clear over the special interests of a select few. Because if we don’t, the agenda will be set without us.

Together we can set out a progressive mandate on the issues we care about by sitting down to meetings with every MP in the country. For us to reach the 150 MPs in our Federal Parliament, GetUp members are banding together in every electorate, forming local teams and holding face-to-face meetings with their MPs. That’s how we can make sure our issues are on the minds of decision-makers in 2014.

The good news is that a GetUp member in your electorate has already volunteered to be a team leader in your community. That means there’s someone taking care of contacting your MP, and booking in a meeting time for the whole team. All you need to do is volunteer some time and energy to meeting up with nearby GetUp members so together you can plan your sit-down with your MP.

Can you join your electorate team, and help to organise a meeting with your MP? Click the link to find and join your local team:

https://www.getup.org.au/meet-your-mp

So far, Federal MPs from both sides of the aisle have been meeting with GetUp members, from Christopher Pyne to Andrew Fraser, Melissa Parke to Anthony Albanese. And each meeting has had its own impact. Here’s what Kate Ellis, the MP for Adelaide, tweeted after meeting GetUp members Deanna, Jeff and Abby:

“Great to meet with some of the 8500 #Adelaide based @GetUp members and hear their views & concerns – passionate community members speaking up.”

And GetUp members have been enjoying the meetings too. Local GetUp member Juanita in Wide Bay didn’t expect to see eye-to-eye with her Liberal MP, Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss, but was surprised how well the meeting went:

“Mr Truss gave our team a full half hour, listened politely and the meeting was really pleasant. Best of all, this whole experience brought me in contact with a whole bunch of vibrant people who it has been a pleasure to meet and swap ideas with!”

Meeting your MP isn’t as scary as you might think. In fact, chances are your MP would love to hear from you over the lobbyists they’re usually stuck with. And you don’t need any experience to take this project on: just a little time, passion and energy to work with a local team of GetUp members to organise and carry out a 30 minute meeting with your MP.

Sound like something you can do? Click the link to find and join your electorate team:

https://www.getup.org.au/meet-your-mp

Meeting with your MP is how we ensure our views on the issues that matter to the silent majority aren’t lost on the bottom of the pile. Issues like real action on climate change, a better approach for asylum seekers a more equitable taxation system, and an independent media we can all enjoy.

But it’s also our best chance yet to build meaningful relationships with our politicians, relationships we can revisit well into the future. This is how we build community power from the ground up. Inch-by-inch, meeting-by-meeting. So NEVILLE, are you in?

Thanks for all that you do,
Jess, Carl, Emma and Sophie, for the GetUp team.

GetUp is an independent, not-for-profit community campaigning group. We use new technology to empower Australians to have their say on important national issues. We receive no political party or government funding, and every campaign we run is entirely supported by voluntary donations. If you’d like to contribute to help fund GetUp’s work, please donate now! If you have trouble with any links in this email, please go directly to www.getup.org.au. GetUp has recently updated our Privacy Policy, to read the policy go to: www.getup.org.au/about/privacy-policy. To unsubscribe from GetUp, please click here. Authorised by Sam Mclean, Level 2, 104 Commonwealth Street, Surry Hills NSW

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SYDNEY, Jan. 22 (UPI) — Australia’s drinking water is at risk from extreme weather, a new study says.The study, commissioned by the United States-based Water Research Foundation, says flooding, prolonged rainfall, drought, cyclones and bush fires impact surface water quality. Such weather events, it says, are predicted to become more frequent and intense in many parts of Australia due to climate change.

“We need to focus on building resilience into our future supplies,” said Stuart Khan, an associate professor of the school of civil and environmental engineering at the University of New South Wales, and lead author of the report, in a news release.

“This means designing systems that are more protected from the impacts of climate change and that have greater flexibility to respond to extreme weather events. This could be partially brought about through a diversification of water sources.”

The report comes as Australia broke another heat wave record, with the temperature in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, reaching 114.8 degrees Friday. Bush fires raged across the southeast last week, with more than 100 blazes in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales.

In Queensland, 26 local government areas are now drought declared, covering almost 65 percent of the state.

Bush fires, for example, can cause ash and phosphorus to enter waterways which feed drinking water catchments, while extreme hot weather speeds up the growth of bacteria that can prove harmful to humans.

Although Australian water utilities are “reasonably well prepared to respond to extreme weather events” because of an industry-wide focus on risk assessment and risk management, Khan said, the vulnerability of the country’s water systems requires urgent action.

Australia has for the most part avoided potable water emergencies.

Amid heavy flooding last year, Brisbane came close to running out of drinking water when the city’s main water treatment plant was knocked out by a huge volume of silt that had washed down from catchments.

“The one thing that saved them was the ability to ramp up water production from the Gold Coast desalination plant at that time,” Khan told the Sydney Morning Herald.

The biggest risk to water supply follows a combination of extreme weather events, such as a drought followed by bush fires and then a flood, rather than an extreme but isolated event.

In 2009, Melbourne’s water supplies avoided a major threat after massive bush fires because heavy rain did not follow those blazes.

But Hahn warns, “As we see these events happening more frequently, it’s likely the impacts will become more severe.”