Page 3382 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 13 October 1993
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Let me talk about these percentages, because they are very important. New South Wales has a population of just a touch under six million people. They have 3.8 million voters, so 5 per cent of New South Wales voters would be 190,000 people. Obviously, Canberra has a population more appropriate to a local government, a local council. The percentages that have been selected around the world in those countries and communities where this principle operates are usually between 2 and 5 per cent. There are a number of reasons for this, but one very important one is social justice. There are many minority groups within our electorate that could be termed disadvantaged. Some people have physical disadvantages; some people have disadvantages because of their birth; others are low income groups. There may be people who are single and have children and are also working.
This voice of the electorate must be available to all groups. If we go too much above the 2 to 5 per cent I have indicated, we will rule out the very people who may most need the right to have a valid say at a referendum or the right to have a say as to whether a question or questions should be put to a referendum. If you increase the percentage, you place the power in the hands of those people who have the money, the support, to gain approval from enough people. You would create not a lobby industry, which we have already, but an industry of people going out to collect petition signatures. We must keep social justice in mind.
The third stage of the process is the binding referendum. The Bill places limitations on what can be put to a binding referendum. The Bill is detailed, and there are limitations. It would allow the people in the ACT to act like a Senate. As we know, all States of Australia, apart from Queensland, have a Senate-type house, a house of review. In Canberra we do not have this. The Voice of the Electorate Bill will allow the people to act in much the same way as a house of review, and I think that is fitting.
In Australia we have many firsts when it comes to the principles of democracy. Australia was a pioneer in giving the vote to women, after Wyoming and New Zealand. The secret ballot was first used in Australia. In America it is even called the Australian vote. We all understand that Australia's Constitution, the Commonwealth Constitution, was adopted after a great deal of discussion in the electorate and after approval of its various details by a referendum of the people, and the Constitution begins, "Whereas the people ...". This proposed law is not about people governing themselves but about people having the right to approve or reject legislation. The government will go on doing the governing. Indeed, citizens do not want to have a say on every issue. They simply want a say on those issues that they feel will have a significant effect on their lives and the lives of their family.
Professor G. de Q. Walker is the dean of the law faculty at Queensland University. In an excellent book, a collection of essays entitled Citizen Participation in Government, edited by Margaret Munro-Clark, he says:
Above all, initiative and referendum tackle the root cause of much of our constitutional and political malaise, which is fear. I do not believe that most politicians behave the way they do because of megalomania. Their subterfuges, prevarications, deal-making,
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