All forms of government serve the people who tell those in power what they want, explain why and show that it will be to the benefit of those powerful people themselves, to do what is asked.

Democracy is the only system of government that gives individual voters the power to influence what the government does. It will be fair to the extent that people who believe in fairness do that. If only greedy, self-interested people get involved in guiding government then it will be fair to the greedy self-interested people and probably unfair to the rest.

In monarchies and dictatorships the ordinary vast majority of the population just do what they are told and the rulers maintain most of the services and wealth for themselves. In democracy any individual using Votergrams can influence the government to do what is wanted.

You have to convince the government that doing what you want will work in its favour at election time. FairGO has developed strategies for helping Australian people do that. The principles apply globally but differ according to the country and culture.

You can mostly make the government do what you want by explaining it very carefully and convincing a majority of the politicians, that it will work best for them as well as for you.

It is very important, for it is the big stick you can carry when you ask very nicely and politely for politicians to do what you want. Without a vote it is much harder to get government support.

By building a support base, by going into marginal electorates and persuading people there to vote out MPs who will not support what you believe is fair to the vast majority of Australians. Or you can use Votergrams to win over the parliament.

It might depend on how you said it, how sensible it sounded, how many MPs you said it too, how often you said it and what you were prepared to do if they declined to do it. If you sent Votergrams some, perhaps many, would be almost certain to take notice. It is handy to get to know them, because that helps too.

You can mostly make the government do what you want by explaining it very carefully and convincing a majority of the politicians, that it will work best for them as well as for you.

The Votergram team spends a lot of time building relationships with MPs and their staff; Votergrams have no party-political connotations whatsoever; people pay for their Votergram which indicates to MPs that they take their request very seriously – seriously enough perhaps, to change their vote at the next election. Votergrams have been around for 40 years. Votergrams recognise that MPs try very hard to manage the extremely difficult job of pleasing 28 million people a fair bit of the time.

Pretty much the same reason as you pay the supermarket to give you the food that you want. The supermarket enables you to buy your food without having to go out into the country and harvest crops or slaughter animals. It saves you travelling to the country of manufacture. All the people who help make that happen, earn money that way getting food to you, in order to buy their own food, clothing etc.

In the same way the Votergrams save you having to go to Canberra or your state parliamentarians in their electorates, one by one and explain to them what you want and why in a way that gets support from enough of them for you to be given it. The small team who run the Votergram service for you (not for or paid by the government) need to have their substantial costs of providing the service covered and need to have some money to buy their own food and clothing. In life we mostly get what we pay for. FairGO works hard to keep the cost of Votergrams s cheap as possible.

We want as many Australians as possible to enjoy good government services and policies. We do not generate enough from fees to mount the big advertising and marketing campaigns that are needed to get known. So we have a plan where people who refer others to send Votergrams, receive a share of the fee by way of Votergram Vouchers to reduce the cost of their own future Votergrams. The people they refer also receive Votergram Vouchers of the same value to make their next Votergram cheaper. So all who spread the word and bring in new Votergram users can continually reduce the cost of their own Votergrams.

A wise Englishman, Lord Acton, announced a great truth a long time ago that applies to corruption, politicians and government. He said this ,”Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. When people are elected or appointed to powerful positions they first use it to benefit the people who it is intended to benefit. Then as they get used to it, the joy of having power tends to make some think that they might use it for something that they or a close friend particularly want done. The better that works for them, the more likely they are to use their power more often to help people who can help them in return. So in politics the power exercised by a politician could be used to benefit people who do things for the politician in return. For example having received a government contract from a government minister or bureaucrat for a few million dollars, the recipient might donate a couple of hundred thousand dollars back to the political party in government. Monarchs and dictators have absolute power ( except where there is a completely independent parliament, like in our case) and that absolute power can be seen and has been seen for thousands of years to corrupt them so absolutely that the lives of their subjects are of little or no consequence and the wealth of the nation is concentrated with them and those who keep them in power. The greater the involvement of the population, and particularly the voters, in working with the Members of Parliament the less likely is their political power to lead to corrupt conduct. Voter oversight, feedback, input discourages corruption. So whether our government and politicians are or will be corrupt, primarily depends on us, the people they are elected and paid to represent. It is up to us!

Do you care about what happens to the politicians, their families, the people who live in the next street, suburb or town,- enough to help them live better lives? If not, ask yourself how many of our 28 million Australians an individual politician could even know existed and then well enough to know what they wanted or needed.They will care about those people who care enough about them, the MPs, to tell them what they think should be done and explain why, politely, persistently in the privacy of parliament. We don’t speak to our parents, partners or teenagers via the letters column in the paper, via a radio shock jock, or a TV show. Communicate with the MPs as you would your family or friends, personally in private and nicely. Then, it has been our experience over the past 40 years, that the politicians will know you exist, understand what you want and why and do their best to help you with what you seek to achieve. That is what Votergrams help you do in a way that will win the support of the majority of the MPs who are interested in your issue.

Your local federal MP is one person in a parliament of 226, half of whom are battling seriously with the other half for POWER. In any other parliament your own local MP will still be just one person in a divided parliament fighting for POWER. The way to rectify that, is, in addition to meeting with your local MP to explain what you want and why, to send a Votergram to let each and every MP in the parliament know what you want done.

Your MP may not agree with what you want. Your local MP may not feel like dealing with what you want.Your local federal MP is one person in a parliament of 226, half of whom are battling seriously with the other half for POWER. In any other parliament your own local MP will still be just one person in a divided parliament fighting for POWER. The way to rectify that, is, in addition to meeting with your local MP to explain what you want and why, to send a Votergram to let each and every MP in the parliament know what you want done.