Report On The Inquiry Into Aspects Of Petitioning Security And Accessibility

This book focuses on online petitioning and crowdfunding platforms to demonstrate the everyday impact that digital communications have had on contemporary citizen participation. In doing do, the book argues that crowdsourced participation has become normalised and institutionalised into the everyday repertoires of citizens and their organisations. Within the digitally-enabled shift in individual acts of participation, creating, signing and sharing online petitions and micro-donations have become a focal point because of the clear evolution from their offline and online counterparts. To illustrate their arguments the authors use an original nationally representative survey on acts of political engagement, undertaken with Australian citizens. Additionally, through detailed interviews and analysis of their web presence they show how advocacy organisations use online petitions within their repertoire of strategic actions. Lastly, they analyse the kinds of policy issues that mobilise citizens on crowdsourcing platforms, based on a unique dataset of 17,000 petitions from the popular non-government platform, Change.org. They contrast these mass public concerns with the policy agenda of the government of the day to show there is a disjuncture and general lack of responsiveness to this form of citizen expression.

Public Petitions and Early Day Motions (EDMs) are both processes that are used by Members of Parliament to bring to the attention of the House of Commons the concerns of particular groups of the population. EDMS are frequently drafted by groups or organizations outside the House and then tabled by Members as demonstrations of support for them. Both procedures allow the public to engage with Parliament, either directly, by signing a Petition, or indirectly, by urging their Member of Parliament to add his or her name to an EDM. This report examines the current procedures that govern them, whether they are appropriate and effective and how well they meet the demands which Members wish to make of them. For Public Petitions the Committee recommends: a requirement on the Government to respond formally to all petitions within two months of their presentation; publication of the texts of petitions and responses to them in Hansard; easier access to petitions on the parliamentary website and opportunities for debates on petitions in Westminster Hall. For Early Day Motions, the Committee recommends the continuation of the present arrangements for the printing of EDMs, but there should be further consideration of e-tabling and that the Modernisation Committee should consider the introduction of a separate procedure to allow substantive motions tabled by backbenchers to be debated.

This reference book is primarily a procedural work which examines the many forms, customs, and practices which have been developed and established for the House of Commons since Confederation in 1867. It provides a distinctive Canadian perspective in describing procedure in the House up to the end of the first session of the 36th Parliament in Sept. 1999. The material is presented with full commentary on the historical circumstances which have shaped the current approach to parliamentary business. Key Speaker's rulings and statements are also documented and the considerable body of practice, interpretation, and precedents unique to the Canadian House of Commons is amply illustrated. Chapters of the book cover the following: parliamentary institutions; parliaments and ministries; privileges and immunities; the House and its Members; parliamentary procedure; the physical & administrative setting; the Speaker & other presiding officers; the parliamentary cycle; sittings of the House; the daily program; oral & written questions; the process of debate; rules of order & decorum; the curtailment of debate; special debates; the legislative process; delegated legislation; financial procedures; committees of the whole House; committees; private Members' business; public petitions; private bills practice; and the parliamentary record. Includes index.

Contains systems of records maintained on individuals by Federal agencies which were published in the Federal Register and rules of each agency concerning the procedures the agency will use in helping individuals who request information about their records.