The Facts About Binding Referendums

If it can work is Switzerland, it can work for New Zealand.

Binding Referendums occur as a result of voters having collected sufficient signatures, on a special petition, to force a nation-wide binding referendum vote on a particular policy, law or subject. Without Binding Referendums there is no real democracy, no checks and balances, no true exchange of communications between the elected and the electorate.

It's now time for New Zealanders to make BCIR one of our political tools and responsibilities. Every voter has a responsibility to use this tool to directly control politicians and to keep and maintain the integrity of our democracy for future generations. We cannot any longer leave it to politicians to all the time decide for us what we want. There are times when New Zealanders feel it is important for us to have a say. It is up to us to tell Politicians what we want and what they must do. We have outlined our 11 point Referendum Objectives.

It is we the voters, not the politicians, who are ultimately responsible for the well being of our society. To survive as a healthy collective we really must evolve as a collective and develop our collective political voice into one much more sophisticated than simply voting for a political party once every three years. Only the people can create and run a government "of the people by the people for the people".

Such governments already exist in other parts of the world. For example in Switzerland for the last 130 years the Swiss have voted on just over 300 issues of which approximately 50% have been approved. In 1977 the Swiss people rejected a value-added tax and in 1986 they rejected a proposal to join the United Nations.

In the USA 23 states have some form of BCIR. In Florida the people passed a petition to force their government to balance the budget on only 80% of total revenue.

In Italy BCIR was used in 1991 to remove existing laws that allowed corruption by criminal elements of political parties and officials. No politicians had the courage to take on such organised and entrenched corruption. The Italians voted a huge 95% "yes" to get rid of the offending legislation.

It's now time for New Zealanders to make our existing legislation "binding" as one of our political tools to directly control our politicians and to keep and maintain the integrity of our democracy for future generations. New Zealand has come of political age.