Queensland citizens draw to the attention of the House the statement of Mr Arthur A Chresby (research analyst in constitutional law and Federal Member for Griffith 1958-61) in his book “Your Will Be Done”, that “The whole system of parliament and the sole reason for its existence, is to make laws for the people” but most importantly, “with the clear implication that those laws will reflect the will of the people on the subject matter of those laws”.

Chresby suggested that electors regularly write to MPs to inform them of their will on matters coming before the parliament to properly fulfil their role as a citizen and allow the member to properly fulfil their role as a representative of their electorate.

While a good suggestion, it leaves the number of electors writing to the MP on a given matter hidden from public view and so citizens have no way to determine whether their MP is deliberately ignoring the express will of the majority of the people in their electorate on a given issue.

Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to amend the current standing orders regarding e-petitions that prevent petitions on similar subject matter from being raised simultaneously. This rule undemocratically prevents citizens from individual electorates via an “Electors of …” request from voicing their concerns on the same issue while being clearly identified as being from a particular electoral division. There would be minimal cost to make this change but great gain in terms of transparency and true democracy.