00:00Anyone out there can do one, and anyone out there can bring about effective change in our society.
00:06Online petitions are a powerful tool in our democracy.
00:10Whether it's legislative change or a company policy, with a few clicks, ordinary people can make significant changes.
00:17Marketing lecturer Andrew Hughes believes petitions can encourage more people to engage with democracy.
00:24At the moment, people are very negative about democracy and politics in Australia.
00:27But yet, at the same time, I think what a petition does is say to people, you know what, we can do positive things.
00:33We can bring out positive change, and that gets more people involved and engaged with our democracy in a very positive way.
00:40The best way to create an effective petition is to think carefully about exactly what action you want and who can action it.
00:47Academic Sky Crozer explains.
00:49Online petitions can be really helpful if you have a particular achievable goal, and you're asking an organisation or a group of people who have the ability to make that change relatively easily.
01:03If you want, for example, your local council to change a policy, if you want a minor change in the production or the packaging of a product, and you're asking the organisation, the company, the local council that has the ability to make that change, and you know that they're susceptible to public pressure, that they're paying attention to what their residents or what their customers want,
01:30then a petition can be really effective in itself.
01:33Online petition website Change.org agrees that Aussies should thoughtfully consider who the petition should be addressed to.
01:41You can have a million signatures, but if you're not speaking to the decision makers, if you're not reaching out to them, if you're not reaching out to media, they may not know that that petition exists.
01:49Page believes an effective petition needs a personal story, one clear ask, one change that you're advocating for, and a plan for leveraging the petition offline.
02:00I do think a lot of people think that because signing a petition is quick and it's easy and it's convenient, that it might not also be effective.
02:07But in 2024, we saw 500 petitions have declared victories.
02:12Recent victories include the 36-month and the Let Them Be Kids campaigns, which advocated for the social media ban for Aussie teens.
02:21Sometimes it's getting a dog park in your local neighbourhood or a crosswalk outside your local primary school.
02:26And I think that the best way to look at petitions is as, yeah, as one tool and tool box.
02:30It lets you know you're not alone.
02:31And that's so important, it's so powerful.
02:34A lot of people won't do something because they're scared to in the modern age,
02:37because they're scared they might be identified or people might, you know, have a go at them for their belief.
02:43But with an online petition, you're now part of many and you know that and you see that.
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