Since Tony Abbott promised a plebiscite on same sex marriage the role of plebiscites in Australian democracy has been hotly debated.
Australia has had only three plebiscites in its history, two held on the issue of conscription during World War 1 and the third on selecting a new national anthem. In the Australian context plebiscites are not binding and there is no way for citizens to initiate them. Referendums differ from plebiscites in that they are binding and need to be carried by a majority of the States in addition to a majority of the general population. They also differ from plebiscites in that they are held to amend the Australian constitution. This has meant referendums have usually been held in this country with the intention of removing restrictions on the Federal government’s power. Appropriately, only eight of 44 referendums held in this country have passed. Reading through the list of failed referendums one can appreciate the role the constitution and the good sense of the Australian people have played in protecting us from the authoritarian ambitions of our governments.
Citizen initiated plebiscites would allow for far greater participation in our democracy. The elites would have you believe that citizen initiated plebiscites are a crazy idea that could never work. They believe we can’t be trusted with the big decisions, that we are too ignorant or too hateful. This is exactly the argument that they are making against the same sex marriage plebiscite. The ordinary citizen can’t be trusted with something as important as the definition of marriage, and given the chance our hateful natures would come to the surface. Or as the Tribune of the people, Bill Shorten described people opposed to same sex marriage, “haters who come out from under the rocks.” This was a cheap shot at people opposed to same sex marriage and shows the lack of regard he has for the Australian people.
The recent experience in Britain has shown the power of direct democracy. It’s almost impossible to imagine any of the major political parties exiting Britain from the European Union. Much like Tony Abbott’s same sex marriage plebiscite the Brexit vote was only ever intended to be a way of silencing dissenting voices in David Cameron’s own party. Every major institution and news organisation campaigned for Britain to remain, but the plebeians told them get stuffed and now Cameron is gone and ‘Brexit means Brexit’. Even though the Brexit vote was nonbinding, god help Theresa May if Brexit doesn’t mean Brexit.
The experience of other democracies demonstrate that citizen initiated plebiscite can work. New Zealand, Switzerland and some parts of the United States have provisions for citizen initiated referendum. These systems require a minimum percentage of the population to petition for a particular initiative. Once that threshold has been met, it will be proposed to the people via a referendum. Switzerland holds referendums every three months and practises a hybrid form of direct democracy. In States like California, referendums are less common, but provide an important check on government power. The New Zealand situation is different. Citizen initiated referendum provides an important potential check on government power, that without a house of review New Zealand’s political system lacks.
In Queensland, citizen initiated plebiscites or referendum could provide a viable alternative to restoring the upper house of the state’s unicameral parliament. There are many issues, such as adoption law reform, euthanasia or lockout laws where a democratic vote may deliver a different result to the ones provided by our parliamentarians. We’ve also seen the Swiss deal with the contentious issue of immigrant via referendum. Interestingly, the Swiss seems to have very different ideas on immigration compared to the elite who run the rest of the Western world.
Our government is becoming less accountable to the electorate. Increasingly, Parliament is shedding its responsibilities and farming them out to ‘independent’ bodies. On last week’s Q & A, Christine Bennett, the head of medicine at the University of Notre Dame, called for an independent body that would be similar to the Reserve Bank to be responsible for health funding in this country. We see this same lack of accountability with politician pay. They set up these independent bodies stacked with ideologically sound ‘independent’ thinkers, and then get to distance themselves from accountability for any decisions that’s made by those bodies.
Citizen initiated plebiscites go against the current trend towards elitism and distrust of the normal person. In a time of increasing elitism in our political institutions a mechanism for the general population to bypass their political masters and have their say can only be a good thing. It’s time for us plebeians to have our plebiscites.
