The phrase "a proxy for the issue" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when referring to something that serves as a substitute or representative for a particular problem or topic.
Example: "The debate over funding is often just a proxy for the issue of educational inequality."
Alternatives: "a stand-in for the issue" or "a substitute for the issue."
The number of issued blood products was used as a proxy for the number of transfused blood products.
The battle over the term has become a proxy for the larger issues that divide Washington and the Arab public.
Whether the United States has declined to speak with hostile groups because it considers them terrorists, or whether it slaps the terrorist label on groups it wants to sanction or marginalize, a battle over the term terrorist has become a proxy for the larger issues that divide Washington and the Arab public.
Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster, says that in many ways the prescription drug issue is a proxy for the rising concern among voters over the cost of health care generally.
The nuclear issue is thus a proxy for the fundamental debate by these regimes over what type of relationship they are prepared to have with the United States and the rest of the world.
Still, Brown is a skillful campaigner, and his supporters have kept the story alive — as a useful proxy for the issue of social class, much as he invariably refers to his opponent as Professor Warren.
The nationalists have played to that issue and tried to brand him as a proxy for the United States and international lenders.
The efficiency and productivity issues are analyzed, considering the (passive) migration as a proxy for the (in efficient service availed.
This dissociation raises issues as to whether confidence can be used as a proxy for the reliability of decisions in non-perceptual domains.
Here, though, he was cast as a proxy for the liberalised baby boomer, a proxy for the audience.
