Welcome to the October edition of What Matters? New England Electorate (WMNEE) Newsletter. We aim to publish one each month to keep you in the loop with our progress.
Big Deal
We hope those that have viewed the Big Deal, either via the link supplied by WMNEE, or more
recently on the ABC, have been inspired to participate in Democracy, and enrol in a Kitchen Table
conversation.
Kitchen Table Conversations
You can all have visitors at home, so no barriers to your own Kitchen Table Conversations. We’ve
already heard and noted the voices of well over a hundred participants at 20 KTCs from across the
region, but we’re not yet reaching all areas. We keep track (anonymously) of who’s taking part and
we’re aiming for 38% from the Tamworth region, 19% from the Armidale area, and a clearly
representative spread from all the other centres big and small, to really reflect the electorate.
As you hold more and more KTCs we’ll be checking that we have people of all ages, more or less
equal men and women, and so on. So, take up the challenge – as subscribers to this newsletter,
you almost certainly want a better democracy, with ordinary people’s voices to be heard, so gather
your friends and neighbours and have an interesting couple of hours at your very own KTC soon.
Send a message to our KTC Coordinator, Bar Finch, at info@vone.org.au and she’ll help you
finalise the details.
What happens to the answers people give in KTCs?
Good question. Not an easy task to analyse. All of the answers will be on a database that anyone
will be able to see, and a future candidate for this electorate might want to see it all, but others will
want a shorter, organised version and we’re working on that.
One preliminary method is the word cloud, which pulls out the frequency of words used. We looked
at the answers so far to Question 4a) What do you think makes for a really good political
representative? And the word cloud came out like this:
representative?
Member Spotlight — Glenn Morris
Glenn is a proud father of three boys and a grandfather from the Inverell district. He has spent his entire working life as a cattleman gaining a deep understanding of the connection between healthy landscapes, an effective water cycle and global atmosphere and climate stability.
His passion for a healthy future led him to complete a Masters in Sustainable Agriculture in the early 2000’s. Glenn’s research on soil health has helped pioneer the important concepts of carbon sequestration and landscape rehydration across Australia and the world. “The values and goals of the individuals in our electorate are what collectively make up the standard of our political representation – every voice should be heard. If we want a safe and healthy future for our children and grandchildren, then What Matters? New England Electorate offers the perfect way to ensure our political representatives are up to the task.
