Electronic option coming for City of Canning petitions

CANNING will become one of the first local governments in WA to offer electronic petitions for people wanting to affect change on local matters.

The e-petition function will be introduced in the next 12 months, allowing people and groups to start a petition, collect signatures and lodge the petition online with the City of Canning.

Willetton Basketball Association used Change.org in 2015 to produce an electronic petition in support of their traditional petition when campaigning for stadium works funding.

President Phil Nixon said even then they got more signatures on the electronic version than the hard copy.

“The Council pointed out to us that there would be some overlap between the hard copy and online signatures and we acknowledged that,” he said.

“We would have relied very heavily on the e-petition but would still have had a hard copy at the facility.

“I would expect far more signatures from the e-petition option – that would be my expectations in 2018.”

Canning councillors agreed at their July meeting to allocate $50,000 this year to implement e-petitions.

Mayor Paul Ng also said the council would not do away with traditional petition submissions, instead offering both options to its ratepayers.

The City of Stirling will introduce e-petitions in August.

Nationally, the Australian Federal Government and the Queensland State Government have an e-petition option on their websites.