Queensland citizens draws to the attention of the House that there is a significant imbalance in the power wielded by citizens and elected representatives and governments in the period between general elections. Citizens are effectively shut out from any decision-making authority in this period – something at odds with the literal meaning of the word democracy, “rule by the people”.

Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to put forward a referendum at the next convenient election time, to give citizens the choice between any or all, of the following options to amend our current laws to address this power imbalance:

1. Citizens veto over legislation / government decisions, whereby a set percentage of citizens petitioning for repeal of recent legislation or reversal of a recent government decision, will trigger a binding referendum on the issue.

2. Recall elections, whereby a set percentage of citizens petitioning for removal of their elected representative will trigger a by-election in their electorate.

3. Implementation of a formal "advice to representative" electronic voting system whereby citizens can formally advise their representative about their approval or rejection of legislation coming to a vote in the parliament. The system should operate in real time and allow citizens to give their vote to any other citizen as their proxy on a semi-permanent, but removable, basis. Options for the weight of authority behind this advice should be given in the referendum and range from "advice only" to "at citizen’s discretion" to "fully binding on representative".