25 September 2024
That this council—
1. Recognises that e-petitions are accepted by the federal parliament and all state parliaments, except for South Australia;
2. Acknowledges that petitioning is one of the traditional forms by which citizens can make requests directly to parliament;
3. Recognises that e-petitions are easy to create, easy to share, and will help citizens bring issues directly to the attention of the Legislative Council; and
4. Calls on the matter of e-petitions to be referred to the Standing Orders Committee for consideration and report.
The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (22:30): I rise on behalf of the Greens to support this motion on e-petitions. The love continues. The South Australian parliament currently only accepts hard copy petitions. The Greens have long believed that this is an outdated way of accepting petitions in our state. While some may argue that allowing for e-petitions may increase the number of petitions considered by the parliament, the Greens believe we should be encouraging maximum participation in our democracy.
We believe that transparent and fair mechanisms should be used to translate community views into changes in our policy and our law. If e-petitions are good enough for our federal parliament and other state parliaments, why are they not good enough for South Australia? We are sometimes in the Dark Ages in this place when it comes to engaging with the broader community, and the idea that a paper petition is the best way of engaging with our constituents I do think is old fashioned.
It makes sense that the Standing Orders Committee should look at how we can move into the 21st century. I am a member of that committee and I am certainly keen to look at how we can bring South Australia into line with other jurisdictions to improve democratic processes and support newer technologies for engagement with our constituents.
Indeed, irrespective of the outcome of this motion I am happy to raise that matter at the committee level and see what can be done in terms of trying to modernise our standing orders and open up opportunities to bring the community more into our parliament.