Last amended 2012-04-10
A little more democracy comes to Britain:
Britain does not have CIR in any form but it does now have a mechanism which allows the electorate to force parliament to debate any issue decided upon by the electorate. It works like this: if 100 000 petitioners sign an on-line petition on any matter then the parliament is required to debate that matter. It is not bound to accept any particular outcome but it does at least have to debate the matter and, therefore, make itself accountable to the public. It's a start. Currently the House of Commons is debating whether there should be a referendum on continued membership of the European Union. Regretably, party politics is again intruding into the debate. This means of course that party politics is attempting to overide both parliament and the wish of the electorate. How sad, how familiar, how annoying. For more information on this please see
Face Book
Nick Bowden has kindly started a page for us on Face Book. To sign-on as a friend of CIR please see
The Senate
There was one cause for hope from the 2010 federal election - the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) won a Senate seat in Victoria. Senator John Madigan will take up his position in the Senate on July 1 by replacing Senator Fielding of Family First.
Whilst we at CIR remain as politically neutral as is possible, we do take heart from the election of someone from a political party which supports CIR. Best Wishes Senator-Elect Madigan. We hope very much that you get a chance to introduce CIR legislation into the Senate.
South Australia
On 2010-08-26 we sent letters to all members of the South Australian Parliament asking them to comment on a draft Bill for CIR. The letter asked for the MP to give their personal opinion on the Bill. The results will be published here at the end of November.
The coming federal election:
No major political party in Australia supports CIR in any form. They have the power, and they intend to keep it - always. We, the citizens of Australia, are allowed to elect our dictators every three years; and we should be grateful for even that. So, come the 21st of August one party will scrape home with perhaps 52% of the two party preferred vote and will, therefore, assume nearly 100% of the political power. Doesn't quite seem right somehow.
There is however some small cause for optimism. Two new parties are in the contest and one of them is committed to CIR. It is the Liberal Democratic Party, which can be seen at www.ldp.org.au
The other party worth noting is Senator on Line. It is a novel idea of having Senators vote, in certain circumstances, according to the wishes of the relevant electors. It is not CIR, but it is democratic and worth thinking about. Further details can be seen at www.senatoronline.org.au
CIR Australia has always been very careful not to ally itself to any political party or any political cause. But, that said, these two new political parties are at least worth looking at.
Best wishes, until a brighter day dawns.
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A very major advance in direct democracy is happening in Europe. The European Parliament has recently decided to implement CIR throughout the European Union. Thus, in a stroke, half a billion European citizens will be able to have a direct say, through CIR, in the legislation which governs their lives. This reform is probably the largest single advance in direct democracy ever undertaken. It is immensely encouraging for us in Australia. For further details please see
And in New Zealand there is Better Democracy, which is doing an admirable job. To see what is happening across the Tasman please see
On 2009-02-05 we sent a survey to all Australian parliamentarians to ascertain their views on CIR. The results, disappointing as they are, can be seen at
The Citizens Parliament has concluded its deliberations for improving our democracy. We are happy to report that Citizens' Initiated Referendum was adopted by the parliament as a desirable and practical reform.
'Citizens' Initiated Referendum - CIR - is the means whereby citizens can demand that a particular issue be put to a binding vote of the whole electorate. For the sake of brevity, Referendum is used to include both Initiative, (which relates to a new law) and referendum (which relates to a vote upon a law already enacted). In either case, CIR Australia advocates that if, say, 2% of the electors in any given jurisdiction sign a petition asking for a referendum, then the matter must be put to the electorate at the next general election.
CIR has been in operation in parts of Europe since 1874 and in parts of the USA since 1898. No jurisdiction has ever repealed CIR.
CIR Australia advocates Citizens' Initiated Referendum in the well founded belief that Australia is as capable as any other country of allowing its citizens to have a full say in their government.