Canberrans would be empowered to vote on significant issues in the ACT every time 5000 territory citizens called for a referendum under the first major election pledge from a group of independents.
Peter Strong, who last month announced he would stand as an independent in the October ACT election, also revealed the formation of Strong Independents, a party to contest the poll.
The party's first election promise is to establish the "People's Poll", a referendum process that would be overseen by Elections ACT every time 5000 people in Canberra called for a vote on an issue.
"The People's Poll is an answer to the frustrations of Canberrans created by a Labor-Greens government that takes winning for granted, an Opposition that can't seem to get organised enough to be an alternative, and four long years between elections," Mr Strong said.
Mr Strong said the party's policy would mean the views of ordinary Canberrans would no longer fall on the deaf ears of the incumbent Labor-Greens government.
"The ACT electoral system makes it nearly impossible for any candidate outside of the Labor-Greens coalition and Liberals to get elected," he said.
"Tens of thousands of Canberrans have no representative in the ACT Assembly. The 23-year reign of the Labor-Greens government means they have stopped listening. This must change.
"We want a strong voice for all Canberrans, not the few. Our plan for the People's Poll will deliver much-needed change and real results."
The party said "highly successful" citizens' referendum models in New Zealand and the United States demonstrated the strength of their policy, but did not say how much they expected the votes to cost.
No petition to the Legislative Assembly since 2013 has had more than 5000 signatures.
A petition calling for a light rail stop at Mitchell in 2018 attracted 4560 signatures. Only two petitions in 2023 attracted more than 1000 signatures.
The largest petition ever presented to the Legislative Assembly was sponsored by independent member Paul Osborne in 1996 and called for the Assembly to vote against the government's proposed restrictions on shopping hours. That petition attracted 39,874 signatures.
The last ACT specific referendum was held in 1995, in which voters backed entrenching the territory's Hare-Clark voting system.
Territory laws entrenched by a referendum vote can only be changed with another referendum or by a vote of special majority of parliament.
The Strong Independents did not say whether their citizens' referendum vote would be binding.
Mr Strong last month announced he would run as an independent in Kurrajong while Ann Bray would run in Murrumbidgee.
However, Ms Bray will now run in Kurrajong, the party's Friday statement indicated.
Mr Strong is the former chief executive of the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia and used to own Smiths Alternative Bookshop.
Neither has said who they would form government with if they held the balance of power, but said they would run on a platform of transparent government administration, genuine consultation, transparent communications and evidence-based decision-making.
Ms Bray is a medical scientist and worked in the public service and private sector for 35 years. She was most recently working as a diplomat in the United States.
Strong Independents' election commitment will cap off a week in which another prominent group announced their plans to field candidates at the October election.
Independents for Canberra was launched by Clare Carnell, the daughter of former chief minister Kate Carnell, and Thomas Emerson, a staffer in the office of independent ACT senator David Pocock and the son of former federal Labor minister Craig Emerson.
Fiona Carrick, who ran as an independent candidate for Murrumbidgee in 2020 and narrowly missed out on a seat, is also considering another tilt and has begun talks about fielding independents for the seat.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr this week issued a veiled warning to be wary of "stooge independents" who would not say which party they intended to form government if they held the balance of power.
