Page 4123 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 23 October 1991
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otherwise may never be aired. It does remove the energy-sapping, time-wasting and heated pressure of non-genuine groups and non-genuine issues from the parliamentary processes.
Most importantly, this Bill provides the checks and balances usually provided by an upper house. This citizen-initiated referendum facility provides house of review checks on government action at a significantly lower - in fact, infinitesimal - cost than establishing an upper house of parliament, which would not be acceptable to the ACT electors. In short, the provisions of the Bill enable the community to express its concerns on matters with broad representative support.
The provisions of the Bill will enable the government to make decisions knowing whether or not there is a substantial and representative mandate from the community on matters of expressed concern. In this way the process enhances the betterment of the entire community. The community should have control of a mechanism to guide the government back on track if it should deviate too far from the purpose for which it was elected, particularly if that deviation was caused by minority pressure groups or non-elected power brokers who may desire to bring unreasonable self-serving pressure to bear on members of parliament, or who may attempt by various means to manipulate parliament. The provisions of the Bill reflect the desire in the community to have a greater input into decisions than is presently available.
I shall outline how the provisions would work. Should an individual or organisation feel that a change should be made to a proposed law or an existing law, they must be able to address that belief. With legal assistance where necessary, they draft a petition, gather 400 bona fide signatures of voters from the electoral roll and present this petition to the Speaker for registration. Twelve petitioners are then appointed as custodians and promoters of that petition. The initiative petition then circulates for signature by bona fide electors. A minimum of 5 per cent of electors of the Territory is required.
The Bill provides a maximum permitted period of 12 months to gather these signatures. During this time, monthly returns are made to the Speaker to enable the success or otherwise of the collection to be demonstrated. This provision allows the public and MLAs alike to assess the popularity of the petition issue. This assessment may well lead to parliament addressing the issue before the referendum is to be held - a fact which would avoid the referendum and enhance the democratic and parliamentary process. Signed petition forms are checked and marked off against the electoral roll, with the safeguard of local scrutineers. This keeps costs to a minimum.
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