[LINK] ePetitions, Oz Style?

[Roger Clarke]

At 12:22 +1100 14/1/08, a linker wrote:
>Petitions to receive greater attention
>Matthew Franklin, Chief political correspondent | January 12, 2008
>http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23040476-5013871,00.html
>
>KEVIN Rudd is to require parliament to formally consider and report on
>petitions lodged by citizens, ending more than a century in which petitions
>simply gathered dust on parliamentary shelves. ...

<cynicism>

Back in 1996 I did a Keynote at VALA on 'Virtual Chewing Gum on 
Virtual Library Seats?  Human Behaviour in Electronic Communities'.

I feel a sequel coming on, called 'Virtual Dust on Citizen Petitions? 
Parliamentarian Behaviour under Electronic Duress'.

</cynicism>

But actually there are some genuinely positive signs in this report.


>  ...  Labor will appoint a
>10-person House of Representatives committee to review petitions and propose
>government action to address the issues they raise.
>
>More than one million Australians signed more than 900 petitions to
>parliament during the Howard government's final three-year term. But in
>almost all cases, the petitions were simply tabled and seldom raised again.
>
>Labor's Leader of the House of Representatives Anthony Albanese conceded
>yesterday that since Federation in 1901, petitions had simply "gathered dust
>in the bowels of parliament".
>
>"The creation of the petitions committee is an important reform which
>strengthens the democratic rights of citizens and ensures that parliament is
>listening and responding appropriately," Mr Albanese said. Yesterday's
>announcement is expected to be the first of a range of changes to
>parliamentary practice under the Rudd Government.
>
>...
>
>Mr Albanese said the petitions committee, which will include six government
>members and four non-government members, would give millions of Australians
>who organised or signed petitions confidence their voices would be heard.
>
>Although the Howard government received 900 petitions between 2004 and last
>year, it had responded to only two, Mr Albanese said. "The Rudd Labor
>Government is committed to boosting parliamentary democracy and scrutiny,"
>he said. "Almost 15,000 Australians petitioned the previous government in
>2007 for a commonwealth dental scheme -- which the Rudd Labor Government
>pledged to introduce during the election."
>
>In another change, petitions will no longer need to be formally sponsored by
>an MP, as Mr Albanese insisted citizens had a basic right to petition
>parliament. And he said the new committee would also investigate whether
>parliament should accept electronic submissions, which are allowed in the
>British parliament.
>
>...

-- 
Roger Clarke                  http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/
			            
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Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng  Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program      University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW