Petitions can save lives. That’s nothing to yawn about

Real freedom of speech is when everyone can have their say.

Yet it’s easy to dismiss with a “yawn” others having their say, especially when you have your own column or a seat on a TV panel.

The yawn came from Sarrah Le Marquand with regard to petitions (in response to Thomas Nicholls’s petition asking for The Project to apologise to Steve Price for being “insulted and humiliated” on the panel).

For what it’s worth, Nicholls declared victory for the petition last night when Price said he doesn’t feel bullied and then got on with the program.

The petition is just the form of communication. Sighing at petitions is gently but unfairly shooting the messenger.

The reason a petition is a form of communication we should all cherish is because it gives everyone a chance to be heard loudly — not just an elite minority with the luxury of newspaper and online columns. The majority of petitions on change.org are started by people fighting injustice who are vulnerable, voiceless and often have nowhere else to turn because they feel nobody is listening. They certainly don’t sit on TV panels.

Take Sonya Ryan. Sonya’s daughter Carly, 15, was murdered by a paedophile who lied about his age and groomed her online. When they met, he bashed and suffocated Carly, and then tossed her into the water. She drowned. Sonya wrote on her Change.org petition how it is not illegal for an adult to pretend to impersonate a minor online — so paedophiles can groom and prey on kids freely. Sonya was hitting brick walls before she started her petition asking for “Carly’s Law” to be passed.

I was lucky enough to accompany Sonya to Canberra last week, when “Carly’s Law” was backed by senior politicians including Nick Xenophon, Derryn Hinch and Bill Shorten. When Shorten read Sonya’s petition plea, he personally signed it and this week issued an official petition response backing it. Very soon, it looks like Sonya’s 96,000 strong petition will change the federal law to protect more kids.

Of course, there are petitions when outrage plays a part. But that doesn’t negate other petitions, like the one by Sherele Moody. Her petition wrote that a domestic violence refuge was being named after Port Stephens Mayor Bruce McKenzie, who admitted to assaulting and “tackling” his wife.

Sherele writes: “He [allegedly] smashed his wife’s face into bathroom tiles and he head butted her. She was left with facial injuries including a busted nose. He copped a 12-month AVO.” Yesterday, Sherele pressed the ‘victory’ button on her petition when the refuge’s name was revoked.

That “victory” button is now pressed every 48 hours in Australia, which indicates the decision maker has agreed to the petitioner’s ask. Laws are being changed. Injustices are being fought. And, sometimes, classic TV programs return.

A recent petition successfully lobbied for Aussie legend Russell Coight’s return to TV. At Change.org HQ, we don’t favour one petition ask over another but at this victory, I confess, we punched the air.

Two weeks ago, Galy O’Connor wrote for RendezView how her petition had literally “saved my life — and 25 others.” She successfully petitioned for the lifesaving cancer op she needed. With 100,000 signatures on her petition, she was able to ask her community of signers to tell Mike Baird why this was important.

O’Connor wrote: “We can make [politicians] listen and act with the right tools to keep up the pressure when a blatant wrong needs righting. I’m living proof of that. Mike Baird listened, heard and acted. I’ll get my surgery date in the next two weeks. I’m terrified of my operation but when I recover I can finally fulfil that dream of climbing Mount Everest and live to see grandchildren.”

Not sure about you, but I wasn’t yawning when O’Connor wrote that. I was punching the air again.

Sam Wright is a campaigner at Change.org

Originally published as Petitions can save lives. That’s nothing to yawn about