17.3.2 Gaining support Members of parliament in the local community
Members of parliament sit in the parliamentary chamber, debating legislation and voting to pass or reject it. However, this is only a small part of their work. As representatives of a particular electorate , they have an important role in the local community that is represented by that electorate. Often, members of parliament are approached by ordinary citizens requesting them to take some action and work to make improvements in that community. Federal parliament sits for only about 18 to 20 weeks per year, so many members of parliament can often spend as much as 30 weeks of each year in their local electorates. It is during this time that a member will be engaged in a variety of electorate activities.
FIGURE3 Members of parliament often perform official opening ceremonies in their electorates.
Helping the community Because each electorate has a similar number of voters, the electorates can vary in geographical size depending on how densely populated they are. This means that an inner-city electorate will be smaller in area than a rural electorate because the population in the country is more thinly spread. For example, the smallest Australian electorate in terms of geographical size is Grayndler, which is in the south-eastern suburbs of Sydney. It has a total area of 32 square kilometres. The largest in area is Durack, which takes up most of country Western Australia. It covers more than 1.6 million square kilometres. This is approximately 60 per cent of the total area of Western Australia, equivalent to more than 20 per cent of the total landmass of Australia. Its voters are spread out on cattle stations, mining towns and remote First Nations Australian communities. As you can imagine, it is much harder for the member for Durack to maintain contact with the voters than it is for the member for Grayndler. Nevertheless, both members will attempt to perform similar duties in relation to their respective communities.
Every member of parliament maintains an office in their electorate. Members representing very large electorates such as Durack will probably have electorate offices in more than one town. Members are regularly called on to visit schools, sporting clubs and various other community groups. They often have the task of making presentations to individuals and groups, and performing opening ceremonies for new community facilities. Members also take up issues on behalf of their electorates as a whole. An example would be a local project, such as the
FIGURE4 The divisions of (a) Durack in Western Australia and (b) Grayndler in New South Wales
(a)
(b)
Durack
Sydney
O’Connor
Perth
506 Jacaranda Humanities Alive 8 Victorian Curriculum Third Edition
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