AMSA has a unique role as the peak representative body of all Australian medical students. Its policy, as decided by council, is implemented by the national executive. This often includes advocating to external bodies, the government and the public about issues affecting medical students. To cut through and be effective, this advocacy must be well targeted and planned, and backed up by accurate research and information. Clearly, it is undesirable for an executive to only begin to develop an advocacy plan and learn the issues once in office. This NAP not only allows for a smooth transition from one executive to another, it also sets out how we will go about representing AMSA’s members, using the framework of a few key issues. We have included in this document as examples some of our plan for internships, bonding schemes and international students.

The NAP demonstrates not only our commitment to advocating on these issues, but achieving positive changes in them. It adds a degree of transparency and accountability to the executive’s actions unlike ever before.

What it does for exec

The National Advocacy Plan will allow the executive to respond quickly to emergent situations by providing a framework of possible contacts, past advocacy and local issues. It will make the executive an effective advocacy force from day 1. It will also allow for benchmarking of advocacy by making clearer just what proportion of contacts, committees, and enquiries the executive have contacted, lobbied, joined or made submissions to about a particular issue.

What it does for council

The National Advocacy Plan will allow the council to pass policy with more confidence that it will be enacted effectively by the executive. It allows the council to have some idea who the executive will be contacting as well as making the entire process of advocacy more transparent.

What it isn’t

The National Advocacy Plan is not a policy document. It does not determine the position of AMSA on any particular issue, as this naturally remains the domain of council. The NAP is also not a static document, as stakeholders and situations are always changing. Rather, it is a guide to advocacy which will be updated and expanded constantly into the future.

How we will use it

For each individual issue listed below (internships, BMP, internationals) we have devised an immediate list of action items which we will implement if elected. However, there are a number of additional strategies we will pursue:

• Next year, 2010, is almost certainly a Federal election year, and health reform is sure to be on the agenda. We will lobby all political parties for position statements on our issues and will collate and contrast them in a document we will send to our members. This will let our members know where their parliamentarians stand and help them carry out their civic duty.
• We will keep an active eye on senate committees in our areas, particularly on international students, and make written and verbal communications to them. We will create media pickups to be released as soon as we hear a story has hit the media to avoid the delays that could well see the story miss the media.