John Madigan (Victoria, Democratic Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to table an explanatory memorandum relating to the bill.

Leave granted.

I table the explanatory memorandum and seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

The speech read as follows—

In 1891 Charles Cameron Kingston, South Australian Premier and committed Federationist, drafted a clause for a Citizen's Initiated referendum which was included in the draft constitution of Australia.

Alfred Deakin, a leader of the Federation Movement and our second Prime minister stated at the Constitutional convention of 1891 that there were many like himself who would be prepared to adopt a Swiss system including “referendums, by which electors themselves were made masters of the situation”.

In the years before Federation the Labor Party in various states included calls for Initiative and Referendum and when in 1900 a national Labor Party was created, its first platform, adopted in January of that year, called for a Federal Constitution that provided for “The Initiative and Referendum for the alteration of the Constitution”. The Labor party of that time described itself at that time as the champion of Democracy.

At the ALP National conference in 1963, an up and coming Adelaide lawyer named Don Dunstan moved a successful motion to drop the policy from the ALP platform.

The DLP advocates Direct Democracy and CIR has always been an important policy for the party.

Direct Democracy is a principle to which every honest parliamentarian should espouse and there is no better example of that than the principles of Initiative and Referendum. We as elected Senators and MPs are here to represent our constituents but so often those same constituents have their needs frustrated by political machines that have little contact with the average Australian.

While the Westminster system of government is a good system it has one glaring fault. It concentrates power in the hands of an elected few, and those elected few maintain tight control of the regulations determining legislation. Centralised power is threatened by CIR because it enables the voters to reject the establishment of a rigidly controlled unitary state.

The popular and more understood form of Citizen's Initiated Referendum includes the ability for citizen's to amend or reject unpopular legislation. This occurs in systems such as the highly effective Swiss System and is not considered as part of this Bill. A completely separate Bill, the Citizen's Initiated Legislation (Plebiscite) Bill 2013 is being considered for introduction later this year to explore that possibility.

This Bill is focused solely on the citizen's right to initiate a proposal for amendments to the constitution and in this it is in accord with the recommendations of the Constitutional Centenary Foundation established in 1991 to encourage public discussion, understanding and review of the Constitution in the lead up to the centenary of federation in 2001

A CIR in whatever form is best recognised by two distinct characteristics. Firstly it gives the electors the power to introduce a proposal to initiate a referendum; and secondly, the result of the referendum is binding on parliament and government.

The idea of loosening the reins of power enough to allow the direct participation of the electors is one that terrifies some in parliament. Power is never given up easily, even when that power actually belongs to those very electors and has been freely given in the hope of proper representation.

There is nothing to fear from this bill. Parliament will not fall, democracy will not crumble and tyranny will not march triumphant through the streets. What many hope will come from this bill is a greater appreciation for the Democratic rights of the people and a closer more intimate relationship between the parliament and the people it serves.

Advancing the democratic rights of any people is an ideal to which we should all aspire. This bill moves a small way along that path and allows the people to decide what the next steps should be, how those steps should be taken and in what direction they will lead.

I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.