Hello dear Members!

I hope you're all well

As most of you know, the Seniors Discount Club is a growing online community for all Australians over the age of 60. We have been around for three years now and feel incredibly lucky to say we now have over 320,000 members!

With our online community growing, and with each and every one of you sharing some of your day-to-day struggles, we have decided to launch a few petitions. We believe with the number of members we have, there is potential for us, as a community, to hopefully inspire some change. We have just four petitions live at the moment, and we'd be more than happy to launch some more if there are any more topics you as a community feel passionate about. If you're interested in seeing the petitions we have live currently, you can see them below:

• Stop the transition to all self-serve checkouts: We think this one speaks for itself! For many of our members, their local supermarkets are quickly transitioning to fully self-served. We believe this is not only causing job losses, but makes the weekly shopping so much more challenging for Australians over 60... Not to mention, how fiddly and frustrating they can be to use! We are petitioning to keep traditional checkouts in our stores.
• Strengthen Aged Care Support, Funding, and Transparency: Sadly, I think I speak on behalf of most of our members when I say the current state of aged care in Australia is extremely concerning. We are petitioning to improve the quality of aged care provided to Australian seniors in facilities across the nation. At the end of the day, our population is ageing and if we continue to turn a blind eye to aged care support, Australians are in for a frightening future.
• Increase the Australian Aged Pension for a Better, Fairer Future: We hear every single day Australian news outlets discuss how Aussies are struggling with the current cost-of-living... But how about our pensioners trying to put food on their table, keep their lights and heating on, and pay for their medicine? The cost-of-living crisis is hitting Australian pensioners the hardest, and there is not enough being done about it.
• Protect the Right to Use Cash and Ensure Financial Inclusivity: Where do I begin?! Without cash, so many Australians suffer. Not every Australian has access to digital payment methods and banking and removing cash, and bank branches is making anything to do with money so much more challenging for Australian seniors. Cash should be kept alive for all Australians.

We know these four topics are just scraping the surface so if there is anything else you'd like us to put a petition together for, please let us know in the comments below.

As with all petitions, the more signatures we get on these, the louder we become! So please share this with all of your family and friends, whether they are a member of the Seniors Discount Club or not! The number of supporters in the top right corner of each petition will be manually updated by our team as often as we can, but our goal is to get 100,000 signatures on every petition!

I cannot thank you all enough for your ongoing support of us and our community. We appreciate each and every one of you!

Sign our petitions! Image source: Shutterstock.

Have a great day!
Maddie

 

[JimmyFlatrock]

You are right ... petitions don't work, but they do make people feel as if they have done something, even if it is ineffectual.

Actually you are mistaken, petitions do in fact work, some getting the desired change, whilst others generate interest and discussions in the public arena. People who sign petitions usually don't do it for shallow self-feel good reasons, but for a deeper more meaningful belief that a certain thing needs to change for the better.

The important aspects of petitions, on-line or otherwise is that they are a valuable tool for raising awareness, engaging people and putting pressure on decision makers. So maybe the organisers of the petition can look at how the petitions are presented to ensure maximum exposure. It's not always about the numbers.

Creating a petition can generate media attention which might translate into pressure on companies and politicians.

Dr. Sky Croeser from Curtin University’s Internet Studies Department is more optimistic. She believes that online petitions can engage people who might not otherwise participate in traditional forms of advocacy.

Petition signing can be a quick and easy way for individuals to express support for causes they care about, even if they wouldn’t engage in other forms of activism.

Political pressure must be added to make a difference. For instance, petitions submitted through the House of Representatives’ online system may lead to discussions in standing committees, but action is not guaranteed.

So you can see I'm not just blowing smoke up some delicate places, here are a few examples from different times of petitions leading the way to significant changes at the time of the petition and/or into the future well after the petition date:
(the link in the first example, at dot point four, is really enjoyable)

1. Women’s Suffrage in South Australia (1894):
   • On 18 December 1894, the South Australian Parliament passed the Constitutional Amendment (Adult Suffrage) Act.
   • This legislation granted women in the colony the right to vote and allowed them to stand for parliament.
   • South Australia became the first electorate in the world to give equal political rights to both men and women.
   • The longest petition ever presented to the South Australian Parliament, with over 11,600 signatures, played a crucial role in advocating for women’s suffrage1.
2. Aldi Australia and Caged Hen Eggs (2016):
   • A petition on Change.org gathered 97,007 supporters and called for Aldi Australia to stop selling eggs from caged hens.
   • As a result, Aldi Australia made the decision to stop selling caged hen eggs, demonstrating the impact of online petitions on corporate practices2.
3. Larrakia Petition for Land Rights (1970s):
   • The Larrakia petition is one of the most significant documents created by First Nations activists in the 1970s.
   • It called for land rights, treaty, and political representation for Aboriginal people.
   • The issues raised in this petition continue to have political significance today3.
4. HECS Debts Reform (2016):
   • The ‘Make our HECS debts easier to pay off!’ petition on Change.org gained over 288,000 signatures.
   • As a result, the Australian Government announced reforms to the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS), making it more manageable for students4.
5. Aboriginal Petition to King George V (1930s):
   • In the mid-1930s, William Cooper, Secretary of the Australian Aborigines’ League, gathered 1,814 signatures for a petition to King George V.
   • The petition sought representation in parliament, citizenship, and land rights for Aboriginal people5.

These examples demonstrate how petitions, whether historical or contemporary, have played a crucial role in advocating for change and influencing policy decisions. There are plenty of other examples available.

 

[Mozzy]

Irene Shelsher

 

[mitchellowe]

There has been nothing done for retirees from any govt especially since this virous the govt allowed into the v
country
i no longer have house or car insurance and i am forced to get the internet out of my pension due to necessity and on top of that i still have a ever growing mortgage again
AAs far as heating and cooling goes i stay in bed to keep warm and if i get to hot i have a bath
I am sure lots of pensioners are doing the same
I DO NOT SEE THE WEALTHY DOING THIS THANKS TO POLITICIANS CONSIDERATION FOR THE AGED WHO BUILT THIS COUNTRY ONLY TO BE SHAFTED WELL AND TRULY

 

[Denise Taylor]

Signed by Denise Taylor

 

[Mazar]

Very good easy to understand forthright

 

[janj]

Wrote 4 emails yesterday and, again nothing went through including my congratulations on the petitions but I asked how do I sign them? I tried a few ways but nothing happened. PLEASE if someone can do it for me tick yes to all . I've often wondered how to do a petition especially about the banks.

done

 

[behiroshen]

please put in a petition

 

[Garvagh]

guys

!good job fight for us oldies

 

[wjs1957]

Hi,

I sorry but I will only sign 3 out of 4. I would support the 3rd if it only applied to people who are over 80 as they only benefitted 17 years of superannuation which was bought in on 1 July 1992. People who retire now have benefitted from 32 years of super and like me should not even be given a pension. That was the one thing that Keating and Hawke got right during their terms in government and for that I salute them.

So my question is why are there so many people being added to get the pension when by now they, like me (66 years old) should be self reliant??? The taxpayer should not be made to pay for people who have never worked and refused to look after themselves and snubbed their noses at their fellow workers and taxpayers IMHO.

Bugger, looks like it's an all or nothing, but you almost have the numbers so as per normal the person that has done the right thing all his life is shafted again!!

 

[Jan Purcell]

I agree with every thing you said, and would like to sign, but I have tried to sign and it just disappeared Jan Purcell

 

[ColleenAnne]

I cannot get in to sign. Have refreshed the screen but will not let me in to signing

 

[Mindygirl12022]

I will definitely be sharing this. Thank you too for supporting us Seniors.

 

[Pianomac]

Well done. I have also signed all 4 partitions. I hope you reach your goal. Regards. Ian.

 

[Slicka]

Ask us before this idea is accepted, I fancy it will happen whether we want it or not.I vote no.

 

[AngelAriel]

I would like to see a petition for the government to open a Nursing Home for the deaf. There are homes for other ethnic groups e.g. Italians, Chinese, Greeks etc but nothing for the deaf, which means, their end-of-life years will be with people they cannot communicate with without a whiteboard or much gesturing. How demoralising.

 

[Blossom1]

I have notist from about 70yrs on would us older genaraion
have become invisible.

 

[JimmyFlatrock]

I would like to see a petition for the government to open a Nursing Home for the deaf. There are homes for other ethnic groups e.g. Italians, Chinese, Greeks etc but nothing for the deaf, which means, their end-of-life years will be with people they cannot communicate with without a whiteboard or much gesturing. How demoralising.

Absolutely brilliant idea/thought for a worthwhile petition to Government to facilitate an inclusive experience for aged deaf people.

 

[Bev49]

Keep the cash going

 

[Kookai]

I have signed all 4 petitions. Thanks for putting these up.

 

["Flash"]

Im not sure how to launch a petition but my grief is with the "invasion" of new people coming to live in Australia!
I know there are political rumblings at the moment about the number of immigrants coming to Australia at present, but support from this group would (maybe) help the politicians decide to physically do something about it!
My point is mainly aimed at the housing crisis but ultimately includes the lack of infrastructure to enable such massive immigrant intake!?