Policy development process

Guidelines for Members Policy Suggestions

1. All policy suggestions must be presented in writing using the official cover sheet format. This includes
   • Name
   • Date
     • Policy development process
     • Policy recommendation: Cover Sheet (Word doc: 33Kb)
   • Contact details
   • A clear indication of where you think your suggestion would fit within our current policy framework, including a recommendation of the wording (see the web site)
   • A brief summary of the rationale behind your suggestion.
   • A concise reference to those Party Principles that your suggestion supports (see the web site).

   Supporting documentation may be attached to the cover sheet. This must be posted or e-mailed to the Party Policy Co-ordinator whose contact details appear at the bottom of the Cover Sheet.

   1a. An opportunity to give a 5-minute oral presentation in support of your paper at a Regional Conference will be offered to you, however it is an option, not a pre-requisite to having your policy paper considered for inclusion within our Policy Framework.

2. The Policy Co-ordinator will…
   • Acknowledge by e-mail or by post the receipt of all policy suggestions that comply with 1a as soon as possible. Those that don't comply should be returned to sender for further work.
   • Copy and distribute the paper to all those on the appropriate Portfolio Policy Team for consideration.
   • Notify the appropriate Regional Leadership if the submitter wishes to make an oral presentation at the next Regional Conference.
   • Set a series of deadlines for the team to work to on this recommendation, and co-ordinate this work.
   • Send on any final recommendations to caucus policy co-ordinator (Judy Turner) for consideration by caucus.
   • Keep the Party Member who sent in the original idea up-dated with what has happened to their suggestion, including any changes made by the Policy Team or caucus to their recommendation.
3. The Policy Team will…
   • Consider the proposal both individually and together looking to see whether it is a good fit within our current policy framework both in term of content and wording.
   • Where appropriate seek to measure the recommendation against current government policy and international examples. The team can request supplementary reading material to assist in their consideration from caucus policy co-ordinator, who will organise this as soon as is possible.
   • Policy Teams are not obliged to send on any recommendations to caucus if they believe that the policy suggestion is not a good fit for the UNITED FUTURE policy framework.
   • Decisions on recommendations to caucus should be ideally made by consensus, but if the team can't agree, all points of view should be sent on to caucus for consideration.
4. Caucus will
   • Give serious and comprehensive consideration to all suggestions sent by Party Policy Teams, with the view to including those recommendations in our official policy framework. Any concerns or changes to wording will be done in consultation with the Party Policy Team Co-ordinator, and a clear explanation for the reasons behind any changes or rejection of ideas will be offered.
   • Where appropriate test new policy ideas with established "focus groups" for feed back.
   • Contact the member who contributed the original idea to thank them.

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