There are three key changes to our current system of government that could significantly improve the democratic process:

 

1.  Adding the possibility of recall elections to our system of parliamentary representation.  This would mean that the citizens of an electorate could put forward a petition to remove the sitting member in between elections and begin the process of a by-election to replace them.  Even if the threshold number of electors required to do this is quite high, the very possibility of it happening should motivate MPs to ensure they are truly representing their constituents, engaging with them thoroughly on contentious issues, and in the end, not overruling their wishes on the presumption that "they know better" (See Rosalyn Fuller on the issue of legitimate disagreement, p 71 and also see her earlier book, Beasts and Gods, here).  {Even if this is not possible to change in the broader system, in his first 2 years in office, Bruce himself promises to resign from parliament if 5% more people than those who did not vote for him as their first preference at the election, petition the parliament requesting his removal.  After 2 years, he will abide by any decision on his role made by the "Pine Rivers Legislative Council" (see below)}.

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2.  Adding the possibility of a citizens’ veto to changes to legislation that have been recently approved by parliament or subordinate legislation that has been approved by Ministers.  The aim is again to ensure that politicians are not just enforcing their own set of values (or perhaps worse, the values of their key financial backers) about how competing interests should be balanced, but allowing the people's values and judgement to take precedence.  {Again, if this is not possible to change in the broader system, Bruce will be encouraging as many people as possible to make their views known to the government and will do everything possible to bring the issue to a vote in the parliament based on the views provided by the people.}

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3.  Most importantly, offering his constituents the genuine opportunity to have their say on legislation coming before the parliament and promising to follow the wishes of the majority in how he votes on the issue in parliament.  For the manner that this could be achieved, see here).  The mechanism to gather individuals views could be:

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• Use of the e-Petition system

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• The VoteWrap methodology as proposed by Mr Thor Prohaska of the Dickson Representatives

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• Whatever other electronic system that can be sourced and modified to provide a secure, convenient method of vote gathering

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• Note that these systems are suggested as an alternative to citizens simply writing to the MP.  While that method is good (and some would argue, a duty of all citizens - see the book, "Your Will be Done" by former federal MP Arthur Chresby), it can lack the public accountability of something like the e-Petition system where the people's views on a particular question, and the number of people holding that view, are public knowledge.  If it turns out that a suitable electronic mechanism cannot be utilised, this "old school" method, or perhaps a tailor-made, local ballot box set-up, will be utilised until a more appropriate system can be found.

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There are often criticisms of the kinds of ideas outlined above - basically along the lines that ordinary people cannot be trusted with such power and will use it irresponsibly.  See here for some thoughts in response.

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For a substantial, Queensland based examination of similar proposals to the above, please see this document.

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