Motions

E-Petitions

The Hon. S.L. GAME (16:56): I move:

That this council—

1. Recognises that e-petitions are accepted by the federal parliament and all state parliaments, except for South Australia;

2. Acknowledges that petitioning is one of the traditional forms by which citizens can make requests directly to parliament;

3. Recognises that e-petitions are easy to create, easy to share, and will help citizens bring issues directly to the attention of the Legislative Council; and

4. Calls on the matter of e-petitions to be referred to the Standing Orders Committee for consideration and report.

South Australia is the only jurisdiction in the country that does not facilitate electronic petitions. This is despite e-petitions being accepted by the federal parliament and all other state parliaments. Petitioning the parliament is one of the traditional forms by which citizens can directly make requests. It is an important part of our democracy.

As other jurisdictions have discovered, e-petitions are easy to create, easy to share and will help citizens bring issues directly to the attention of elected representatives. To allow the receipt of e-petitions by the Legislative Council a change to the standing orders will be required. As such I call on the matter of e-petitions to be referred to the Standing Orders Committee for consideration and report.

The current manual process of collecting signatures by a pen and paper is archaic and does nothing to promote fair and reasonable democratic change. My office has worked hard on these types of petitions, including petitioning for enshrining the rights of families and of unborn children who die in utero because of a prescribed criminal act and to oppose the First Nations Voice bill.

It is onerous on those wishing to bring important matters to the parliament, and there is no credible reason that South Australia remains the only state that does not administer e-petitions. I currently have an online petition to halt Australia's legislated Voice to Parliament, which has collected thousands of signatures from South Australians who deserve to be heard by this parliament.

I respectfully call on the Legislative Council to catch up with the times and recognise e-petitions in the standing orders.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. I.K. Hunter.