Thought for the weekend: should we invite the opposition?

[Alec Webley]

I've sent out invitations to Bob Carr and Richard Marles to accept the youth resolution. I had a thought: should we invite the Coalition as well? 

I think it not unlikely that they would attend, though who knows? It could be mutually antagonistic. 

Let me know your thoughts,

Alec

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Alec Webley 

Convenor | UN Youth Human Rights Summit

Evatt Director | UN Youth Victoria Inc.

Chair | UN Youth Australia Foundation

Opening young eyes to the world

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[Toni Henderson - UN Youth Victoria]

I guess it depends on whether their presence will be productive or not. I'm gonna be honest: will they behave or will they end up offending a majority of our attendees?

In terms of fair and equal say - sure why not. But would they actually be helping to round out discussion?

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Toni Henderson | Vice President
UN Youth Victoria Inc.

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[Timothy Christodoulou]

I think in the interest of fairness and balance, someone from the Coalition should be invited. Aside from Julie Bishop, someone that springs to mind is Josh Frydenberg. He's from Victoria, he's one of the main foreign policy wonks in the Liberal Party and he's one of their more sensible MPs. That said, he's on the record as being opposed to marriage equality, while Bob Carr and Richard Marles are both supporters.

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[Michael Ford]

I'm unsure of what the norm is with UNY, but Minus18 only ever invites the Government of the day to speak at our big events such as the Same-Sex Formal (despite the fact that generally the Opposition are more likely to say what we want to hear).

This is a show of respect beyond all else, given that we are wholly funded by Government. Accordingly, we also wouldn't invite a representative of a minor party.

Obviously we are inviting Parliamentarians to this Summit for a more practical purpose - to have their attention directed to our draft Resolution and to hopefully gain their support - rather than simply as a show of gratitude. 

Inviting the Opposition could cause us to appear that we do not believe that the current Federal Government will be able to follow this resolution through beyond September (which is likely to be the case, however we need not imply that). 

We'll simply have to determine what's most useful - to show our full support in the current Government and hope that they take action to support our resolution at the UN prior to the election, or to hedge our bets and invite the Opposition at the risk of antagonising the Government.

I think it's better to keep the current Government on side simply because they're more likely to support our resolution than a Coalition Government under Abbott, and so would prefer not to invite the Opposition. Very interested to hear the thoughts of others.

Michael Ford

0406 486 301

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[Alec Webley]

So my thoughts are these:

1. To clarify, the invite is for them to accept the resolution we've written. Given both parties maintain unsatisfactory positions on LGBT issues, I expect both will say something along the lines of "hum, very interesting, young people are great!" Julie Bishop in particular will not say anything offensive precisely because she's a politician; if she wants to indicate she disagrees with us, she'll simply refuse to attend.

2. I don't think this has any bearing on our (us+partners) relationship with the state government; this is a very international conference in its focus. Indeed, given divided government between state and feds, it would make some sense to hedge our bets.

3. If the opposition attended, it would be a powerful opportunity to shift the political discourse on these issues. After all, we expect the left to take our side. To bring over the right as well would actually make sizeable change.

4. As a point of principle, we invite both parties to accept the youth dec (like this youth resolution, only broader and drawn up by our national conference). 

5. I suppose I have a somewhat selfish (pro-UNYA) desire that we butter our bread on both sides where we can. This is especially true since we will need to work assiduously to preserve the Youth Rep when the next government takes over (if we can preserve it in this one). 

6. I agree that inviting the opposition instead of the government would send a very negative signal. But the idea here is both attend. If we invite Gov and only opp attends, well that's a very interesting state of affairs, no? I imagine this fact can be leaked back to the Gov and they'll drum someone up. 

7. I agree with Michael that since the point here is to present a policy document, rather than an expression fo gratitude, there is much more reason for us to be broad. If this were an invitation to keynote, I agree we'd need to restrict ourselves to government. But this is political policy.

So my current inclination is to invite both. Further thoughts?

A.

[Michael Ford]

Sorry - to clarify, wasn't concerned about this affecting our relationship with funders in any way, simply stating what we do.

Given it's standard UNY practice to invite the Government and Opposition for similar presentations of resolutions etc, I think that's the way to go.

Michael

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