Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee

Inquiry into Electronic Democracy

Having your Say

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Some people believe it is really difficult for individuals, community groups, business or other interests to have a say in the community. When important issues are discussed by Parliament and government, these people feel that they can’t make themselves heard, or maybe they just don’t even know when their special interest is being talked about.

This can leave some people feeling frustrated and others might lose interest in the whole political process. Maybe the reasons for them feeling this way stem from living in a remote location ; maybe from being aged or sick and not able to get out ; or maybe they just feel that their single voice couldn’t make a big contribution. Even some young people have lost interest in politics and how our society is governed.

People losing interest is the worst thing that can happen to our democracy. Our system works by people choosing a representative to speak for their local area. The elected representatives meet in Parliament to discuss major issues and the elected Government decides its policies on what to do. The Government must face the public at every election and may be voted out. Elections work best when people can easily find out what the candidates are offering. After the elections, the representative democratic system works best when people can easily find out what their representatives are doing, and easily let them know what they think about important issues.

There is a chance to make things work better. Electronic technology can offer new ways to get in touch and make yourself heard. Nothing will ever replace going and talking to your elected representative, but now there are additional ways to get in touch. New technology offers easier and faster ways like–

• Sending emails to elected representatives;

• Having a say in decisions by contributing to computer chat rooms about policy;

• Getting your interest group active online; and

• Being told when your special interest is going to be discussed in Parliament, or could be affected by government action.

Other possibilities include using new technology in elections. Some places around the world are experimenting with voting by computer. In some countries, this because they have very few people bothering to vote in their elections and they are looking for ways to make it attractive to them. There are still problems with making this work. We don’t have low voter participation here, but we should start thinking about the possibility of using new technology in elections.

Our system of electing people to represent us in Parliament and form a government has served Victoria well for over 150 years. It isn’t perfect, but it has proven that it can guide our community through many tough times and handle difficult issues.

One advantage of our system is that the public chooses representatives to look after the hundreds of decisions needed every year in our complex society. Some alternative systems rely on the public voting in referenda on every issue that comes up. Under that approach, we’d all have to vote many times per year. There’s no way any one person could be fully informed about all these issues.

Another strength of our current system is that it grows and changes in a gradual way. It can’t suddenly be hijacked by short-term interests. That is the main danger in systems that don’t elect representatives like we have in our democracy.

This Inquiry is about using new technology to offer extra ways of informing people and getting their feedback on what is important to them. It is about how to improve our representative democracy. It is not about replacing the representative system with anything else. Our present system has proven its value. Now we are looking to make it even better.

The Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee has been asked to investigate Electronic Democracy. This is your chance to have a say about what use we should make of new technology in our representative democratic system. The Committee is keen to hear from you before it reports to Parliament. Submissions should be emailed to andrew.monaghan@parliament.vic.gov.au or posted to:

Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee
Parliament of Victoria
Level 8, 35 Spring Street
MELBOURNE 3000

To help people start thinking about these issues, the Inquiry is distributing a Discussion Paper prepared by a private consulting firm, Trinitas Pty. Ltd. This discusses how new technology might affect our representative democracy and raises many questions. We want to know what you think.

I encourage you to read the Discussion Paper in detail. Anyone who doesn’t have time to do that, can read the nine Discussion Sheets enclosed. Each one takes a key issue from the Discussion Paper and summarises it in Plain English. Even if you only have time to read these summaries, I encourage you to send us your ideas on them.

Extra copies of the Discussion Paper and the nine Discussion Sheets can be downloaded free from our website www.parliament.vic.gov.au/sarc Paper copies are available free from the Committee at the above address or telephone (03) 9651 3500.

To give your ideas the widest possible audience, all submissions will be treated as public documents unless you request confidentiality. I encourage you to send us your ideas by email or through the post.

The closing date is Friday 25 October 2002.

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