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CIR Western Australia There is no provision for Citizens' Initiated Referendums in this state. There are provisions of the Western Australian Constitution which cannot be changed unless those changes have been approved at a referendum. These provisions are set out in Section 73 of the Constitution. It should be noted that only Parliament can commence proceedings for constitutional change. As at 2008 there have been no referendums conducted pursuant to the Constitution Act. For the full text of the Constitution please see There have of course been government-initiated referendums held on such matters as daylight saving and retail trading hours. Whilst governments throughout Australia have been very reluctant to allow referendums initiated by the population they have sometimes found them to be a convenient way of dealing with highly contentious issues. For a listing of referendums held in Western Australia please see
Article from the ABC Posted
A State Liberal MP will introduce legislation into Parliament to establish voter initiated referenda. The Shadow Treasurer Steve Thomas says he has been working on his Private Members Bill for 18 months. Under the proposal, a referendum would have to be held if a petitioner was able to get 7 per cent of the voting public to sign. Dr Thomas says currently that is about 100,OOO people. "It will be extremely difficult for people for people to actually use an elector initiated referendum to change the laws of the land," he said. Dr Thomas says a referendum would only be binding on the parliament if 60 per cent of voters agree. He has suggested daylight saving and retail trading hours as suitable issues for elector initiated refendums. It is sad that Mr Thomas's seat was amalgamated in a redistribution and he was not re-elected. CIR is once again frustrated at the last minute. |
Western Australia