Write to your local member

How you can support sonographer regulation in Australia

Thank you for getting involved in advocating for the national regulation of Australian sonographers. A significant way that you can support this work is by writing to your local member of parliament.

We have sample text at the bottom of the page that you can copy and paste into an email or letter to support you. Use the table below to find your local member and their contact details.

Thank you again for your support. If you need more information or assistance to contact your local member of parliament, please email us at Sonographer_Regulation@sonographers.org 

Find and contact your local member

Step 1. Identify your electorate – click the link in the first column against your state or territory. Enter your suburb to find your electorate name.

Step 2. Find your local member – click the link in the second column. Use your electorate name to find your local member.  Clicking on their name will provide you with their contact details if not already stated.

Note: you may need to CTL+F to search the page for the electorate name.

Step 3. Write to your local member – copy and paste the ‘Example text’ from the bottom of the page into an email or letter and send!

Note: some electorates have more than one representative. Either choose your preferred person or email all of them.

State or Territory	Step 1: Find your state or territory government electorate	Step 2: Find your local member(s) and their contact details
ACT	Scroll down the ACT electoral boundaries list to find your suburb and the corresponding electorate.	On the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory ‘find your members’ page, scroll down to find your electorate and your five representatives. Contact one or all five. Click on the individual’s name to find their contact details.
NSW	Enter your postcode or suburb on the  NSW Electoral Commission ‘District Lookup’ page to find your electoral district.	Use Ctrl+F to search for your electoral district on the Parliament of New South Wales Legislative Assembly member page. This will identify your representative and their contact details.
NT	Select the relevant PDF at the bottom of the NT Electoral Commission page to identify your electoral division by suburb, or town and remote community.	Using the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory member list, use Ctrl+F to search the page for your electoral division. This will identify the member who represents you and their contact details.
QLD	Enter your address into the search bar on the QLD Electoral Commission page to find your state government electorate.	On the Queensland Parliament member page use Ctrl+F to search for your electorate. This will identify the member who represents you and their contact details.
SA	Enter your address into the Electoral Commission of SA page search bar to find your electoral district.	Use Ctrl+F to search for your electoral district on the Parliament of SA House of Assembly member page. This will identify your representative and their contact details.
TAS	Enter your address into the search bar on the TAS Electoral Commission page to find your Tasmanian Parliament House of Assembly electoral division.	Use Ctrl+F to search for your electoral division on the Tasmania House of Assembly member list page. This will identify the five members that represent you and their contact details. Contact one or all five.
VIC	Enter your address into the Parliament of Victoria ‘Find Electorate’ page to find your electoral district.	Select your district from the Electorate drop-down menu on the Parliament of Victoria member search page. Then click search. This will identify your representative. Click on ‘View member’ to find their contact details.
WA	Enter your postcode or suburb into the WA Electoral Boundaries page to find your electoral district.	The following Parliament of Western Australia Legislative Assembly member search page lists all electorates in alphabetical order. Scroll down the page to your electorate to find the member that represents you and their contact details.

(Step 3) Example text to your local member

Below is example text for you to cut and paste or personalise as you wish for an email or letter. You can also DOWNLOAD THE WORD DOC HERE.     

SUBJECT: Protect patients by regulating all sonographers under the National Regulation and Accreditation Scheme (NRAS)

Dear <   >   

I am a constituent of your electorate and one of the 7,800 practising and student sonographers in Australia.

I am writing to request that you protect patients by asking the Minister for Health to support the regulation of all sonographers in Australia.

Sonographers are highly skilled healthcare professionals. We have a vital role in providing quality ultrasound services and performed most of the 12.1 million Medicare-funded ultrasounds accessed by Australians last year.

However, unlike other medical imaging professionals, sonographers are not regulated under the National Regulation and Accreditation Scheme (NRAS). This means patients are at risk.

We work autonomously to capture medical images under the supervision of a medical practitioner who interprets the examination. If a sonographer fails to produce quality images or identify pathologies, the report prepared by the medical practitioner is likely to be inaccurate. This impacts the patient’s diagnosis and treatment and may result in delayed or additional treatment.

Without regulation, patients have no central complaints process, there is no nationally enforceable measure of professional standards for sonographers, and other patient protections, such as recency of practice requirements, are missing.

I support the national regulation of sonographers and ask that you recognise the need for it also.

I look forward to hearing from you and appreciate any assistance you can provide.

Yours faithfully