Now’s our moment FAIR AGENDA

Late last night news broke that Tony Abbott is “taking the weekend” to consider a cabinet reshuffle.¹ You and thousands of Fair Agenda members have already reminded him, in his own words, that there are plenty of talented female coalition MPs “knocking on the door” – but the late breaking articles don’t mention any women under consideration.

Right now is our moment to break down that door. But it has to be today.

Here’s what it will take to put fair representation on the PM’s agenda this weekend:

1. More voices joining the call: Can you share our petition on facebook and tag five friends asking them to sign? We’ll deliver the messages to the Prime Minister today, and invite local media to hear about the fast growing campaign, so he won’t be able to miss it.
2. Taking the message directly the the Prime Minister: if enough of us tweet and comment on his facebook page, the staff monitoring social will have to alert Mr Abbott to the calls for more women in Cabinet.
   • Tweet @TonyAbbottMHR by clicking here and ask him to #shuffleinsomewomen.
   • Comment on the Prime Minster’s Facebook page. You can’t post on his page, but you can comment on his posts.
   • Don’t have social media? You can also email the Prime Minister’s office using this online form.
3. Make sure the media ask him about it: political staff know there’s nothing like the Friday afternoon press inquiry to get the whole office jumping, so let’s go where the journalists are:
   • Tweet, tweet and tweet some more: journalists are the most active twitterers, and if we can start a conversation in the twittersphere it’s sure to be picked up more braodly. We’ve thought of some fun hashtags like #cabinetfullofwomen, #wheretheladiesat, #letthemin and #shuffleinsomewomen – what else can you think of?
   • Dash off a quick letter to the editor of your state paper so the Prime Minister has some good reading over the weekend – it doesn’t have to be long, in fact the shorter and sharper the better.

Unsure of what to say? Don’t worry – we’ve plenty of suggestions to get you started, just click here for some ideas. The important thing is that everywhere the Prime Minister goes today he’s being asked about women in Cabinet.

Could there a be a better time when the Prime Minister himself has called out sexism in the Liberal party² and we know he plans to reshuffle the cabinet?

We’re all busy this time of year – but if you can take just a few minutes to do these three things, we can change the course of the PM’s busy day, and make it about fair representation in our Government.

Thanks for all that you do!

Bec and Renee for Fair Agenda
-References-

1. Prime Minister Tony Abbott to spend weekend pondering front bench reshuffle, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 December 2014.
2. Peta Credlin critics are sexist, Tony Abbott claims during TV slap down, Sydney Morning Herald, 12 December 2014.

Fair Agenda
http://www.fairagenda.org/