Legal Letter to a Minister

Your Task:

You are an advocate for social justice. You are increasingly concerned about the social inequalities that the COVID 19 situation has brought into sharp view in Australian Society and you are wanting to make your concerns known to state and federal Ministers. By making your informed views known, you believe you can help to trigger social change to bring about social equality.

1. Identify and select a Government Minister from the following list:

https://www.aph.gov.au/about_parliament/parliamentary_departments/parliamentary_ library/parliamentary_handbook/current_ministry_list

2. Write a letter to that Minister identifying your concerns and making key arguments around them with a view to explaining what the issues are and why social action/change is needed. Your job is to be persuasive.

3. In writing the letter and in making your arguments draw on at least three of the
following concepts we have studied in the topic.
-neoliberalism
-privatisation
-capitalism
-surveillance
-panopticon
-migrants and asylum seekers -immigration detention -overincarceration of Indigenous peoples
Select from:

4. Make sure that you remember that your ability to be convincing and persuasive depends on your ability to come across as knowledgeable about the issues and ideas you are bringing to the Minister’s attention. You will need at least 4 references for this letter in addition to set readings for the topic.

5. You are writing a letter of 2000 words. Think about how you can best divide the space you have in the letter for each of the issues that you raise.

6. Take some time to think about this task as deeply as you can before starting to draw up a plan of attack. What have you thought about the current crisis as it has unfolded? What are the key issues that Governments need to know about? How are those things linked to what you have been learning this semester? How can you start thinking about Australian society in a more expert and informed way?
We look forward to reading your letters! Good luck