E-Petition

The Petition of citizens of Queensland draws to the attention of the House our disappointment with the recent rejection by the Attorney General, of the suggestion for enhancing democratic accountability found in e-petition 4352-25 put forward by Electors of Kurwongbah.  This rejection continues the outdated viewpoint that citizens should delegate their authority to their members of parliament in an absolute manner for four years, meaning that MPs and governments are only directly accountable to them for one day in one thousand, four hundred and sixty-one days, or 0.07% of the time.

Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to put forward a referendum for the people of Queensland to consider the following set of suggestions to address this situation while at the same time offering MPs and governments additional stability to serve their constituents when they are meeting their expectations for genuine representation and good governance.

1. Introduction of seat-based recall provisions whereby a sitting member can be recalled by electors of their seat.
2. Introduction of citizens’ veto of recent legislation provisions.
3. Extend the period between general elections to between five and seven years depending on which of the above options are accepted/implemented (which would tend to offset any additional financial costs introduced by the previous options).