12-04-2021, 11:21 PM
Mantis, you've learnt a valuable lesson. It seems you've been using a breadcrumbs approach: your first piece of correspondence was just a request for information you already had in the hope you could spin it out into a chain of correspondence in which you would progressively reveal your distaste for the Bill. Your breadcrumbs approach might work with independents and opposition members who have spare time but was hardly going to work with a government that is dealing with a health crisis. Maybe you should have put all of your concerns or submissions in the 1st letter/email. Being heard isn't the same as having a personal hotline to engage in 1 on 1 debates. It would be cool to be a Bob Woodward who gets to drop by and chat to all the decision makers but if there are too many Bob Woodwards nothing would get done.
Mail-in campaigns can work by demonstrating widespread dissatisfaction in the community. They don't work by tying up the government in countless chains of correspondence and endless hours of personal outreach. While you will protest that you're only 1 person and you aren't aligned with others who are coordinating such campaigns, try seeing it from the viewpoint of your interlocutor. As DJC suggested, sending 20 letters/emails in a comparatively short space of time would have seen you put into exactly that basket.
Mail-in campaigns can work by demonstrating widespread dissatisfaction in the community. They don't work by tying up the government in countless chains of correspondence and endless hours of personal outreach. While you will protest that you're only 1 person and you aren't aligned with others who are coordinating such campaigns, try seeing it from the viewpoint of your interlocutor. As DJC suggested, sending 20 letters/emails in a comparatively short space of time would have seen you put into exactly that basket.