It may seem counterintuitive, perhaps even nonsensical, but Australia’s Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) currently has no power to help consumers with complaints about the world’s tech giants, such as Google, Meta, Apple, Microsoft and Hubbl.

And yet 1537 people have come to the TIO since 2023 with complaints about these omnipresent digital platforms, and complaints to the TIO have been rising year on year.

They are the same sort of complaints the TIO receives about the telcos it oversees, such as Telstra and Optus. They’re mainly about fees and charges, service breakdowns, and accounts being blocked. Meanwhile, the TIO makes clear on its website that it only handles complaints about internet and phone services. ����Vlog has also heard from many people who’ve been ill-served by a digital platform.

For Ombudsman Cynthia Gebert, it’s a case of regulation falling behind the modern day realities of the digital world.

“It’s heartbreaking telling people that, unlike issues with telco providers, we don’t have the power to help resolve their digital platform disputes – no one does,” Gebert says.

“When things go wrong online, the cost is profound: people and small businesses are losing time and money. People are struggling to solve their complaints directly, coming up against unhelpful chatbots and automated emails – so they turn to us.”

TIO wants to become the Communications Ombudsman

According to the final report of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Digital Platform Services Inquiry published earlier this year, nearly three out of four Australians think it should be easier to lodge a complaint about a digital platform, and over eight out of ten of us think we need an independent body in Australia to handle such complaints.

Gebert wholeheartedly agrees, which is why the TIO is calling on the federal government to change its name to the Communications Ombudsman and to add digital platforms to its remit.

“When someone loses access to their telco service, we work with the consumer and the company to resolve the issue. But when someone is accidentally locked out of their social media or cloud storage account, and the platform is not responding, there’s nowhere for them to go,” Gebert says.

The TIO breaks down digital services complaints it receives into two categories, transactional and social disputes. Most of them (78%) fall into the former and involve fees and charges, account access, and privacy breaches. But social disputes can involve thornier issues such as offensive or illegal material, misinformation and harassment. The TIO has to tell these people that it can’t help, and that no other independent body in Australia can either.

“Using services provided by big digital platforms has become unavoidable in modern life, but what happens when something goes wrong? Consumers need a well-resourced external dispute resolution body to resolve consumer complaints and identify systemic issues,” says ����Vlog director of campaigns and communications Andy Kelly.

“Appropriate internal dispute resolution processes should also be established and digital platforms should take a proactive approach to identifying complaints, rather than making consumers jump through hoops just to get a response.”

In a recent report on the issue, the TIO cites a number of chilling cases in which people’s lives have been upended due to an issue with their digital services provider, ranging from businesses not being able to continue functioning to accounts accidentally being deleted along with all the purchased digital goods.

Complaints to the digital platforms themselves are mostly exercises in frustration that rarely lead to an acceptable resolution. 

“We are calling for the Australian Government to expand the TIO to become the Communications Ombudsman. To support government reforms such as the under 16s social media ban and digital duty of care. It’s more important than ever that people have appeal rights when digital platforms get things wrong,” Gebert says.

The post Why your complaints about Meta and Google aren’t being resolved appeared first on ����Vlog.

Large numbers of Australians are experiencing poor customer service and many of us feel the standard of support provided by businesses is getting worse, new ����Vlog research reveals.

In a survey of over 6000 ����Vlog supporters in May this year, 73% told us they had encountered sub-par service from a business in the preceding year, and 85% believed this assistance was getting worse.

Consumers told us they were commonly having to spend long periods on hold, were being passed between company representatives who couldn’t help, or even finding it hard to find a way to contact a business in the first place.

While virtually all respondents told us they think companies should have to provide adequate and accessible customer service, there’s no law in Australia requiring this.

Emboldened by this chorus, ����Vlog is pushing for a change in the law that could set standards for the help businesses are required to deliver to consumers.

What’s wrong with customer service?

Customers left waiting

Just over 48% of supporters told us they felt they had been kept waiting too long when trying to seek help by phone.

Karen Trudgian says she spent a “surreal” amount of time on hold to AAMI over multiple occasions when she tried to process a car insurance claim.��

Her wait times were so long she often had to hang up and try again another day.

“It took me three weeks to get through to them, so it was orders of magnitude slower than it has been in the past,” she recalls. “I was waiting beyond what I consider to be a reasonable amount of time.”

Karen says the experience means she may just decide to pay out of her own pocket next time her car needs a minor repair.

“I think I’d fix it. I’m not entirely sure I would use my insurance. It was just such a deterrent,” she says.

AAMI didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Problem unresolved

Even when they do get through to a business, many customers aren’t getting their issues resolved.

Almost 43% of respondents said the assistance they received hadn’t solved the issue they’d had with a good or service.

For example, one respondent spoke of being turned away from a telco’s storefront and told to seek support via phone or online.

Another recounted having to sacrifice time on holiday overseas to follow up with an Australian bank that hadn’t resolved critical issues, including blocked access to savings.

Customers given ‘the run-around’

Australia’s consumer regulator, the ACCC, has adopted a dim view of companies being evasive, calling out businesses who’ve given consumers ‘the run-around’.��

Despite the naming and shaming of some big brands, a fair few are still stringing customers along.

Nearly 40% of supporters recalled times they had been passed between different people in the course of trying to get an issue resolved.

This often meant they had to spend more time on hold, or were forced to repeatedly explain their problem to multiple staff members.

Consumers who had tried to resolve a technical issue with their telco in particular recalled being passed from one person to another, without their problem being fixed.

Contact details hard to find

Over 31% of respondents told us it hadn’t been easy for them to find a way to contact a business when they needed help.

Some of the brands they mentioned also featured in our recent probe of the hardest-to-reach businesses.

One ‘return champion’ is ridesharing giant Uber, which left John (surname withheld) holding the full bill for a trip his driver had cancelled midway through the journey.

This happened two years ago, while he was trying to return home after receiving medical treatment.

“I was really weak and tired, both physically and mentally, because I’d been in hospital for 10 days,” he recalls.

Seeking a refund, he went looking for a way to contact Uber, but found himself lost in a sea of unhelpful information.

“You find out everything from who started the company, to who owned the company, their performance and where they are in the world,” he says. “And 2000 words later, you’re still no wiser as to how to get help.”

John did eventually get a refund, but ����Vlog has noted that it’s difficult to send Uber an open-ended query, with this option hidden away in a list of FAQs on its website.

Uber has previously told us that it’s “committed to providing best in class customer service” and that there’s a wide range of ways customers can contact it.

Why is customer service so poor and what can be done about it?

����Vlog deputy director of campaigns and communications Andrew Kelly says Australians have delivered a clear verdict on the quality of support they’re getting from the businesses they spend money with.

“We’ve heard thousands of stories about bad customer service, so the feeling that [it’s] getting worse is palpable,” he says.

Kelly says there are a variety of reasons for the support shortfall, but the absence of any regulations compelling companies to do better is a key factor.

“There are no overarching customer service standards in Australia, so when it comes to the law, there’s little to force businesses to provide good customer service,” he says.

“While there are some obligations in various industry codes of conduct, these only cover some sectors and vary in terms of how vague or specific those obligations are and how strongly they’re enforced.”

The good news? State, territory and federal governments across Australia are considering how they can change this state of affairs.

The federal government has recently been consulting with the public on how it could better mitigate commercial practices that are hurting consumers.

Kelly says one way it could do this would be to follow the example of jurisdictions such as the US, EU and UK by introducing unfair trading prohibitions.

“����Vlog is calling on the government to pass strong new fairness laws that would make a raft of unfair business practices illegal,” he says.

“This could include tactics like deliberately creating barriers for consumers looking for help after purchasing a product or service, making contact details hard to find, or failing to provide an appropriate means to reach a company in the first place.”

The post Hard to reach, stuck on hold, no resolution: Join our call to fix bad customer service appeared first on ����Vlog.

On this page:

• The hardest-to-contact companies and how we tested them
• What happened when we contacted them
• What about via social media?
• Evasiveness legal, but unfair

Ever had an issue with a product or service, but found getting through to someone at the retailer nigh on impossible? We know the feeling.

When it comes to contacting companies with a complaint or query, consumers can sometimes find themselves stuck in a rabbit warren of forms that go nowhere, phone on-hold music, and emails that disappear into the ether.

Believing businesses shouldn’t be allowed to create unfair barriers to customers seeking support, we set out to see which brands are giving Australians the most grief and tried contacting them ourselves.

The hardest-to-contact companies and how we tested them

We received over 150 submissions when we asked for your nominations for the hardest-to-contact companies.

Coming out on top, the seven companies mentioned the most by members and supporters were Telstra (9), Uber (7), Ticketek (5), Optus (5), Couriers Please (5), Qantas (5) and Aldi (5).

While several of these businesses such as Uber and Qantas offer recommended solutions to myriad customer queries on their websites, we tested the businesses’ customer support avenues that allow personalised, open-ended and unique queries, often by phone, live chat or filling in a web form.

Posing as a customer, we reached out to each company during business hours, lodged a query and waited to see how long it would take to receive responsive support (to the extent that we were able to carry out a conversation with the representative) relevant to our request.

It’s worth noting that we were only trying to get this sort of response, so if you’re contacting these companies for a solution to a real issue, it may take longer than suggested by this article.

What happened when we contacted them

The results of our experiment varied widely depending on the company, from quick responses received through relatively easy-to-use platforms, to contact avenues that were dead ends.

Telstra and Optus

Both of these major telcos received a relatively high number of nominations from our members and supporters.

And while it appears many consumers have struggled with these companies, when we contacted them posing as a customer, we managed to start receiving responsive assistance relatively quickly.

Both companies took about a minute to connect us to a human operator when we contacted them by phone.

Getting responsive support from what seemed to be a human staff member via live chats on the Telstra and Optus websites took 11 and seven minutes, respectively.

Both telcos promise quicker remedies for users who log in and communicate via their respective apps and this was borne out in our exercise.

Telstra took four minutes and Optus three to start providing reasonable assistance when we contacted them as a logged-in customer.

Telstra tells ����Vlog its support wait times have improved in recent weeks after it hired more staff, but says these periods can be longer during “wide scale issues” such as major weather events.

Optus says it’s committed to “raising the bar” on customer service and has invested “significantly” in its offerings.

Uber

In addition to more than a few nominations as a hard-to-contact company, Uber’s customer service was given the rating of “zero” by one unhappy ����Vlog member.

Doreen Buckley says she struggled to get in contact with the global ridesharing brand last year after she started getting charged for services she hadn’t used.

“I did everything to try and contact Uber, without any success,” she recalls.

����Vlog found Uber’s contact options more limited and difficult to uncover than those of other companies we looked at.��

Users of the company’s app and website can send it a query via a live chat function, but the link to this was hidden away in a list of FAQs.

Once we found this option, we were able to receive responsive support within six minutes as a logged-in user.

A separate search engine query reveals Uber does have a phone number customers can use to book a journey without using the company’s app.

This “dial-a-ride” service has been running in Australia since February, but plays a message directing you to its website when you select the customer help option.

Buckley says she eventually became fed up with not being able to reach Uber and gave up on the company completely, only managing to stop the payments by asking her bank to block any Uber-related transactions.

“I’ve never used them since … I’ve gone back to taxis,” she concludes.

Uber tells ����Vlog it’s “committed to providing best in class customer service” and is able to “resolve millions of interactions every year”. It maintains there’s a wide range of ways customers can contact it.

Ticketek

If you go to the Ticketek homepage looking for customer support, it takes several clicks to access a series of web forms where you can send a query to the company.

However, even the business’s “general enquiry” form only lets you ask about specific events it’s selling tickets for. It won’t accept more general, personalised queries such as those we were using to test companies for this article.

����Vlog member Phillip Thompson is one of many consumers who has struggled to get in touch with a human being at Ticketek.

“I spent hours and hours on it,” says the Sydney resident, describing his attempt last year to buy seats in a specific location for an NRL game.

Thompson says he phoned Ticketek on a call centre number that appears as the top result following an online search.

“I rang them over three days and there’s no offer there which said: hold the line if you want to speak to someone,” he recalls.

When ����Vlog tried calling the same number multiple times over different days, an automated message suggested we could wait to speak to a customer service member (all of whom were purportedly helping other callers) but advised us to go online for assistance.

All of this lasted less than a minute before we were hung up on.

Thompson describes Ticketek’s customer service as “zero”, but says it has a monopoly on many of his favourite events.

“I’ve been following rugby league since my father used to take me out when I was five years old,” he says. “I don’t want to deal with Ticketek, but I don’t have a choice. If they’re doing the ticketing, you have to deal with them.”

In a statement to ����Vlog, Ticketek defends its customer service and says it has customer service lines dedicated to answering accessible booking, memberships and venue queries from customers.

Couriers Please

Courier companies got plenty of mentions in response to our sweep for hard-to-reach businesses, but Couriers Please was mentioned the most.

When we called the company’s phone number, saying we were having trouble booking a parcel delivery, we were connected to a human operator within one minute.

Using the firm’s live chat function advertised prominently on its website, however, was more difficult.

We were only able to get personalised and responsive assistance by selecting an option to provide feedback on the service – the only avenue left after failing to get help through the chat’s “Send a parcel” function.��

All up, it took 13 minutes to start getting responsive live chat assistance from what seemed to be a human staff member.

We later found that you can also type in “Can I speak to a person?” into the live chat to connect to the company’s customer service.

Couriers Please didn’t respond to our request for comment on its customer service offering.

Qantas

We gave Australia’s most famous airline a��Shonky back in 2022��for its poor customer support and long phone wait times, but it appears its service is still rubbing some people the wrong way.

Qantas offers relatively few customer support avenues that allow you to contact it with a unique query, with a phone number being the most obvious option.

However, it only took us five minutes to be connected with a staff member when we called – a vast improvement from 2021, when a ����Vlog investigation recorded wait times of over an hour on some occasions.

Qantas says it’s made “substantial investments” in customer support and this has led to a “significant improvement” in service levels.

Aldi

Cult favourite supermarket Aldi was also regularly mentioned by supporters putting forward their suggestions for the most evasive businesses.

The retailer’s most prominently-advertised assistance avenue is a series of web forms.

We submitted a query via one of these, pretending to be a customer looking for more information about a product we’d bought, and received a phone call following up with us over 24 hours later.

In the world of supermarkets, it’s common for retail chains to provide unique phone numbers for each store (however, their reliability can vary).

Anyone searching online for the phone number of their local Aldi may be initially pleased to see the company appears to be extending the same courtesy.

That’s until you notice the number (13 25 34) is the same for every one of the German company’s outlets in Australia.

Calling this number doesn’t connect you with a human operator, but rather an automated message directing you to the online support options detailed above.

When we asked Aldi about how available it makes itself to customers, it said only that it “strongly encourages” them to contact it via its online portals.

What about via social media?

While none of the companies we examined for this article encourage customers in need of help to contact them via social media, it’s an increasingly popular way Australians are attempting to communicate with businesses.

With that in mind, we also tried posting our queries to the most complained about companies via direct messages to their Facebook profiles.

The results were mixed.

Messaging Telstra’s page elicited reasonable support within eight minutes. For Optus and Uber, this took 23 and 31 minutes, respectively.

Ticketek’s profile took almost a full day to respond, and while Qantas has a message function on its Facebook page, a prompt told us none of our messages could be delivered when we attempted to contact the airline.

Couriers Please and Aldi both have Facebook pages, but there’s no option to send them a direct message.

Evasiveness legal, but unfair

“It’s disappointing to see businesses making themselves difficult to contact,” says ����Vlog campaigns and policy adviser Yelena Nam.

“This sort of information is especially vital when there’s an emergency, such as when a consumer suspects that they’ve been scammed,” she adds.

“Missing details of businesses can cost people their time and money and cause unnecessary stress.”

Australian Consumer Law doesn’t specify how accessible businesses should make themselves to the public, but ����Vlog believes evasiveness is bad for consumers.

“While this practice is unfair, it’s not illegal,” Nam explains. “We’re calling for strong new fairness laws to ban these unfair business practices, which include creating barriers for consumers seeking support or redress.”

The post The hard-to-reach businesses frustrating Australians appeared first on ����Vlog.

Before you contact these agencies, make sure you have tried your best to get the problem fixed.

The post Useful consumer rights contacts appeared first on ����Vlog.

On this page:

• What do ombudsmen actually do?
• Lodging a financial dispute with the AFCA
• Lodging a telecommunications dispute with the TIO

They’re funded by the industries they oversee, and their services are free for consumers. In effect, ombudsmen are paid to deal with consumer complaints that the service provider can’t resolve to the customer’s satisfaction.

The expectation is that an ombudsman can persuade the wrongdoer to do the right thing. But do they have any real leverage?

What do ombudsmen actually do?

Some consumers have told ����Vlog their dealings with ombudsman services have left them less than satisfied. In the case of the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO), a conspiracy theorist might say that’s because its board of directors is made up of former or current telco industry managers and executives.

Indeed, ombudsman services are set up as a kind of outsourced self-regulation. However, it’s more likely that consumer frustration stems from having a poor understanding of what an ombudsman can and can’t do. It’s important to remember, for instance, that ombudsmen can’t provide legal advice or represent you in court, and they can only deal with matters that fall within their terms of reference.

You’ll also need to have tried to settle the issue before they become involved. More and more, though, merely threatening to contact an ombudsman is enough to spur service providers into fixing your problem.

The TIO and��AFCA (the Australian Financial Complaints Authority)��look after two market sectors that generate many consumer complaints (telecommunications and finance), but both services are making progress towards realising one of their central objectives – to persuade telcos and financial services providers to improve their own dispute resolution processes.

Lodging a financial dispute with the AFCA

Basic information

Phone number: 1800 931 678

Funded by financial firms. All Australian financial firms are required to pay a registration fee to become a member of AFCA. They also have to pay individual complaint fees when AFCA receives a complaint against them.��

Call them for disputes about:

• credit cards or loans
• ���Բ��ܰ����Գ�����
• banking payments and transactions
• investments and financial advice
• superannuation.

Don’t call them about:��

• level of a fee, premium, charge or interest rate unless it’s incorrectly applied or inadequately disclosed��
• methods used to assess credit risk or the amount of security required for a loan��
• investment performance unless there is an issue of nondisclosure or misinformation.

Dispute deadlines

A financial firm has 30 days (45 days for a superannuation provider) to resolve a dispute brought by the AFCA with you directly. They say more than half of complaints lodged with AFCA resolve at this stage.

For most issues, consumers have six years from when they became aware of the issue, to when it must be reported to AFCA. Or two years from the end of any internal dispute resolution process with the provider.

Powers

As a first step toward resolution, the AFCA makes a preliminary assessment which includes how they think it should be resolved. Both parties have 30 days to agree to it, and if not, it goes to a determination.��

If you accept AFCA’s determination, the financial firm must provide the remedy stated.��

Most disputes with financial services providers are resolved between the customer and the relevant bank, credit provider, insurance company or other financial services provider, with the AFCA refereeing from the sidelines. However, should the AFCA step in and make an official recommendation or determination in your favour, it can require a financial service provider to:

• pay you a sum of money
• waive, vary the terms or release security for a debt
• repay, waive or vary a fee including interest rates on a loan
• vary the terms of a credit contract in cases of financial hardship
• honour an insurance policy claim.

Read more about the process on .

Lodging a telecommunications dispute with the TIO

Basic information

Phone number:��1800 06 20 58��

Funded by��telcos. All businesses that provide or re-sell telecommunications services to consumers or small businesses are legally required to join the TIO. Providers are charged by the TIO��per complaint��if it investigates

Call them for disputes about:

• landlines
• mobiles
• internet services.

Don’t call them about:��

• equipment supplied by a telco
• cabling beyond the network termination point except to the first telephone
• commercial activity by telcos outside of connection services
• tariffs and rates.

Dispute deadlines��

Customers have two years from the time they become aware of the issue to make a complaint, though the timeframe may be extended to six years depending on the reason for the delay.

Powers

The TIO will initially refer the matter back to their member and usually allow 10 working days for the telco to resolve the dispute before it becomes formally involved. If the matter cannot be resolved at the initial stage, TIO will investigate and propose a recommended outcome, which each party has 10 business days to agree upon.��

If either party rejects this outcome, they will form a preliminary view, either immediately, or after further investigation. If this is rejected, it will be referred to a decision maker who can make a decision that is binding.��

Read more about the process on the .

The post How ombudsman services can help you appeared first on ����Vlog.

What should you do when things go wrong? If you want to make a complaint, follow our checklist for your best chances of being heard and achieving your desired response.

Step 1 – Before you complain

Before you complain, take some time to go through the following steps. This will help to keep you focused on the real issues and what you want done:

What is wrong?

• What exactly is the problem with the product or the service?
• Write down some points so you have them clear in your head.

What are your rights?

• Check through the ����Vlog website and look at the ACCC and state and territory fair trading or consumer affairs websites for more information. For example, if you bought a product or service after 1 January 2011 you have rights under the Australian Consumer Law. For purchases before that date, you still have rights but they’re not the same – the ACCC website has more on .
• If you have a problem which is complicated and/or potentially worth a lot of money, consider paying for some legal advice. It might seem expensive, but it may save you a lot of money in the long run. If you can’t afford to pay for legal advice, consider approaching a .

What do you want?

• Do you want a refund, a replacement, a repair? This will depend on whether there is a minor or major failure.
• Do you just want an apology? Sometimes you might just want to make the organisation aware of what’s happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

What documents do you have?

• Gather together documents such as your invoice or receipt, packaging, photos, emails or letters.

Make some notes

Write down some important points such as:

• date of purchase
• date the problem occurred
• what you have done so far
• conversations – when, where, who, what was said
• any reference number.

Don’t delay

• Take action as soon as you can. The earlier you try to fix a problem, the more likely you’ll be successful.
• If you keep trying to use something that is breaking down, you might make the situation worse.

Step 2 – Complain

Talk to the business

• Usually you can get a long way if you talk to the business first.
• Be polite.
• Explain what has happened and what you want to happen.
• If you are not getting anywhere ask to speak with a supervisor or manager or the owner. Sometimes employees don’t know enough about consumer rights.
• Remain calm; try not to get upset.
• Take some notes of the conversation either at the time or later.

Follow up in writing

• Send a letter or an email.
• Make sure you have the correct contact details.
• Be clear and polite.
• Set out clearly and simply what is wrong and what you want done.
• Use natural language and don’t try to sound like a lawyer (even if you do have some legal training).
• Include details about date of purchase, date the problem occurred, what you have done so far.
• Send copies (not originals) of relevant documents (but not too many).
• Give them a reasonable time limit to respond. This might be 7 or 10 or 14 days depending on the type of product or service.
• Say what you’ll do if you can’t fix the problem, such as taking your complaint to your state consumer protection agency or the ACCC.
• Give your contact details (email and/or phone) so they can get back to you quickly.
• Keep a copy of your letter and any response you receive.

Phone scripts

Here are some scripts and templates you can use when contacting the retailer or service provider.

Email and letter templates

What if it doesn’t work?

If you don’t get a satisfactory reply from the business, you can make a formal complaint to the fair trading or consumer protection agency in your state or territory.��

There might also be a specific industry body that can deal with your complaint. Search online using the words “consumer complaint” and “[insert relevant industry]” and see if you can find a consumer advocate or other organisation you can phone for advice.

There are ombudsman services for some service providers such as telcos, energy and water providers and financial services, and also for government bodies.

If you still can’t get your issue resolved, you might want to take further action by lodging a claim in a magistrates or small claims court or in the Civil and Administrative Tribunal in your state or territory.��

But if you take this path, you should seriously consider getting legal advice as there’ll be costs involved and you may find it takes way too much time and effort for little reward. Remember the old saying: “Don’t throw good money after bad”.��

The post Consumer complaint checklist appeared first on ����Vlog.

Who looks after what?

The oversees Medicare, immigration, customs, employment, workplace relations, Australia Post, family support and pensions, Centrelink, funding to the states and territories, income tax, GST, company taxes, control of the ownership of TV and radio, imports and exports, air safety, passports, defence and broadband.

To find out who your local federal member is and how to contact them, visit the website.

The state and territory governments deal with schools (primarily), railways, car registration, the fire brigade, wildlife protection, hospitals, most roads, police, ambulance and prisons.

You can get in touch with the , , , , , , and governments directly.

Your takes responsibility for street signs, sports grounds, rubbish collections, building permits, collecting rates, traffic control, animal control, drains, footpaths, swimming pools, libraries, local roads, parks and gardens.

How to get in touch with your representatives

You can get in touch with your local member in the following ways:

• mail
• email
• phone
• in person at a meet and greet (a calendar of scheduled meetings should be on your member’s website)
• at a requested one-on-one meeting.

Getting in touch directly can be tricky. Times when parliament is in session or just before an election are busy periods for representatives. You may often be put in touch with an intermediate staff member or adviser.

Brian Costar, professor of political science at the , believes constituents are likely to get the best results if they see their representatives face-to-face, but says it’s important to go to the right member for your issue.

“People often don’t distinguish very clearly between the various jurisdictions,” Professor Costar says. “They’ll go to their state member over a federal issue or vice versa. A lot of time is spent redirecting people to the right places.”

What issues can you bring up?

You can get in touch with your local member regarding specific problems or general issues, including:

• problems with government agencies
• issues with garbage collection
• zoning inquiries
• requests for changes in party policy positions
• to express a concern about legislation.

“You might want to contact your MP about a matter of broader concern, such as passing on your views about foreign policy or the budget, or arguing a case for a different policy approach from the government,” says emeritus professor John Warhurst of the at ANU. “You’re asking for the MP to pass on your views to the minister or party room. A lot might then depend on the influence of your local MP, who could be a member of the opposition or the government – and that makes a difference.

“For most common issues, such as matters of justice and access to government programs, it might depend more on how experienced and hard-working your MP is, rather than what party they’re in. But if you’re looking to change the law, certainly it’s better to have an MP who’s also a government minister.”

Lobbying

Lobbying activities – where people and organisations act on someone else’s behalf – include trying to:

• influence government decision making
• make or amend legislation, policies or programs
• influence the awarding of government contacts
• secure government funding.

Lobbyists come in all forms – ����Vlog, for example, advocates on behalf of consumers. Some organisations lobby in a non-profit capacity, as ����Vlog does. Lobbying can be big business, with entire firms and in-house lobbyists employed to attempt to influence those in power.

“Lobbying is a huge industry – there is serious money being spent,” says Professor Warhurst. “One assumes the people who are spending these vast sums are getting value for money.”

Although employing a lobbyist doesn’t guarantee a positive outcome, particularly as lobbyists can be employed by both sides of a political tug-of-war, it may tip the scales.

“We’re not all equal, and people who have the high-powered lobbyists on their side have a big advantage,” says Warhurst. “It’s not necessarily sinister, though – lobbyists might be used to inform the government of a bid, put together a fancy submission, gain access and play the game. They work out who is making the decision, and who has to be convinced. Their work may involve using pressure to, for example, get a majority in cabinet in favour of building something in South Australia rather than New South Wales, but it’s not corrupt in most instances.”

Is my information secure?

Getting in touch with your local MP is a great way to engage in the political system and seek help, but it may come at a cost – to your privacy.

It’s been long that the two major political parties in Australia use databases to keep track of their constituents. The ALP’s database is called Electrac; the Coalition’s is called Feedback. Professor Costar told ����Vlog any contact with your member is registered in the databases, including:

• attending the office in person
• contacting the office in any way
• writing a letter to the local newspaper
• sgning a petition.

“People who go into electoral offices will have their interests recorded on the databases,” Professor Costar says. “Similarly, if you write a letter to the local newspaper or sign a petition, there are people in the electoral offices scouring the newspapers who will record it.

“The original idea was that political parties would build the databases and target constituents with direct mail. But they started doing that and found it too expensive. Now they aggregate the information with the electoral roll and try to target areas in the electorate using the census collection districts. They’re trying to build as good a picture of people in their electorates as possible so they can campaign to them.”

Professor Costar argues while this may not seem like a big deal to constituents, the major parties don’t have to reveal what’s in the databases under legislation, so there’s no way of knowing exactly what kind of information they have about you. So it’s certainly something worth thinking about before putting pen to paper or fingertip to keyboard.

����Vlog readers share their experiences

When ����Vlog asked our members if they had ever contacted their representatives and what results they’d had, the response was largely a positive one. Quite a few reported hearing back from either the representatives or a staff member, and several said the member had intervened on their behalf with a positive outcome achieved.

Nori told us: “My husband and I have had numerous occasions when we wanted to take up some issues, so we’ve spoken with our local MP personally or with his office. Once, [at] the last minute, we asked his office if he could write a reference letter for us to send to the Immigration Department when we sponsored my mother to visit Australia. The letter was mailed to us at once.”

Rebecca wrote of her many experiences getting in touch with her representatives.

“I have contacted local, state and federal representatives by letter, email and phone. I went to my federal MP’s latest street greeting session and was very impressed by the amount of time he gave me and his willingness to discuss his position regarding my concerns.

“The state member was extremely helpful in getting a grant for my daughter’s primary school, and even attended the P&C [Parents and Citizens Association] to explain what was available.

“And when the local council replied to a letter (and picture!) from my five-year-old daughter about the local park with a form letter, I complained to my ward councillors and the mayor wrote back straight away.”

But some of our members had less encouraging results.��

“I sent an email to my local member asking about his position on marriage equality,” said Todd. “I found his contact details by [searching for] his name, went to his website, clicked on ‘contact’ and voila! Easy. I received a personal response in a few days. However, previously I emailed Bob Brown expressing disappointment over his behaviour as a guest in the house during the visit by [former US president] George W Bush. I got contact details from the parliamentary website. No response, though.”

Should you bother?

The experts that ����Vlog spoke with all agree that seeking help from the relevant local representative is time well spent.

“I don’t think people use their local members enough,” says Professor Costar. “A negative attitude to politicians as a class stops people from approaching their local member who, while they might not be able to solve the problem themselves, could intercede with whatever agency this person is having a problem with.

“Let’s face it: the local MP is never going to turn a person away because they don’t know who they vote for.”

Professor Warhurst agrees. “The average local MP will devote most of their resources to interchange with the public – they can and do help you. The first point of call is the department itself, but if you’re not getting anywhere yourself, or you don’t understand what’s going on, you should feel free to go to your local MP. This is their bread and butter.”

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