Prospect of a plebiscite

Surely, there is a lot more on the public agenda than the Global Financial Crisis and the still-inconclusive climate change debate?

The continued health governance problems may finally bring Australia back to earth.

The federal-state ramifications already beg the question: Is the piecemeal tinkering dressed up as "cooperative federalism" providing a solution at all?

The Republic issue has thankfully been raised again by Bob Brown in the form of a plebiscite bill, resulting in a completed Senate Inquiry.

Could we all hear when his Bill is going to be presented now and in what form?

The next election would be an obvious opportunity but hopefully more questions are going to be put to the voters than just the one.

The general strategy to involve the public meaningfully and increase the chances of successful referendums should be to offer multiple questions in non-binding, advisory plebiscites, then formulate the appropriate referendum questions based on the responses.

This common sense approach, amazingly, has hardly been used in Australia.

The health governance solution could be the first such plebiscite, even combined with the several Republic questions before the election.

Asking the public's opinions and acting on their advice is all about democracy.

We don't need more reports and delays.

Klaas Woldring, Pearl Beach