The discussion draft for a new, more democratic Australian
constitution is built on three main ideas
1.
The parliament will still be elected by voters,
but with clearly defined obligations to the people, and limits on power [a
contract enforceable by law]
2.
A President will be directly elected by ALL
Australians, to be the public face of Australia, and will have some power to
veto bad laws or to influence the Parliament
3.
The people will have the right to Petition the
President, and to have that petition taken seriously.
The people’s right to Petition the President in this draft is
built on an already popular idea - that government should give voters a bigger
say on important issues – a right to demand referenda, opinion polls or
plebiscites.*
A major defect of a two or three party system is that we are
more or less forced to choose a bundle of policies, and take the good policies
with the bad.
If, for example, I want to vote against current asylum
seeker problems but in favour of equal marriage laws, it looks like neither of
the two major parties is going to cut the mustard at the next election.
The discussion draft tries to strike a balance between
giving people a say on what specific or individual policies should be, and leaving
the job of implementing those policies to the government.
How Petitions Currently Work
Currently, petitions have some sway but no legal power, and
signatures are not necessarily collected in any strictly controlled way.
Voting and Referenda [in Australia, a Plebiscite unless we are talking about a change to the actual
constitution] can be expensive. The Abbott Government has recently used the
expense of a public vote as a rather poor excuse to ignore the issue of
same-sex marriages.
How Petitions Could Work
S50 a) of the
draft makes voter registration more secure, makes it easier to check whether someone
has the right to sign a petition, and prevents people from signing more than
once. Every signature would then have legal weight.
102 – The Right to Petition the President
a) Where the People present a Petition to the
President for change and that Petition is in the proper form, The Australian Electoral
Commission shall measure the level of support for the petition.
b) Where it is shown that support exceeds 35
percent of the number of registered voters, the President shall
1. Address the people with his thoughts on that
matter and
i. Encourage policy changes in the Parliament
or
ii. direct the Australian Electoral Commission
to prepare papers putting related questions to the people at the next
Australia-wide election.
How Much Petition Power People Would Have
The legislative process in the draft has checks and balances built in:
Because The President is not bound by Ministry or Caucus politics, he has a
chance to return legislation for review. This gives “the people” time to
actually protest.
The President is required to respond to big petitions.
If the President agrees with Parliament against the wishes
of the people, the decision is delayed until the next election. End of story.
Want to stop fracking through the Artesian Basin? Done with a binding petition.
Want to stop the President signing the TPP? Done with a binding petition.
Want to stop fracking through the Artesian Basin? Done with a binding petition.
Want to stop the President signing the TPP? Done with a binding petition.
Under the draft Constitution, we would have one big election
day, every two years, on a fixed date. This takes care of all the polling for Presidents, Parliaments, and Local Governments.
It would cost little extra in money terms and require no
extra “voting days” – to canvas public opinion more frequently on a bigger
range of issues, as well as deal with Petition matters. It’s almost stupid to
not make the most of election days.
In some direct democracy systems [see * below], people go to
the polls as often as every 3 months. I think this would be overkill. We are more
likely to be intent on stopping something bad than voting for some little
detail. This draft just focuses on more power over policy - not detail.
What do you think would be an appropriate number of
signatures for a petition to have some kind of binding power – at the very
least, to poll people’s opinions while we are at the polls?
You can read the text of the draft here or
PM me through the facebook page and I will happily email you a more readable
PDF. The draft DOES need everybody's input, it is just designed to start
discussions.
Please
join the discussion if you agree Australia needs a new and more democratic constitution.
If you don't want to use blogger, you can discuss the idea via facebook.
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