Oxfam supporters made the most of their opportunity to meet Federal Member for Moreton Graham Perrett at his weekend mobile office last Saturday in southside Brisbane. Newly enrolling into the electorate, Emily Cowlrick and Jessica Wheelock took the chance to update their electoral roll details while also presenting their new MP with copies of Oxfam’s latest report on land grabs and handing over a letter asking him to put forward their calls for Australia to sign up to a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol ahead of global climate talks coming up in Doha in late November.
The Kyoto Protocol is currently the only legally binding global agreement to tackle climate change. Mr Perrett asked to be kept informed on the Grow campaign and news of local activities and told supporters he was happy to sign in support of the current call for action asking the World Bank to improve standards to protect the rights of small-scale farmers and their communities and so prevent further cases where farmers and their families risk being left landless and hungry due to unregulated land grabs.
In response to their climate action letter, Mr Perrett said Australia had a role to play as a global leader, noting more constituents were now understanding the importance of putting a price on carbon (and that none had raised concerns at this mobile office compared with 12 months ago when 10 constituents had lined up to talk to him about the issue). He called on more supporters to write to their local newspapers and MPs to show the Federal Government that Australians wanted continued action on climate.
by Oxfam Queensland Community Campaigner Ann Matson
