Work in small groups for these activities.

Activity 1: What does a petition look like?

Petitions are one way in which citizens can have a say.

Look at the front page of the 1900 Women's Petition and the way it has been organised. Download a copy of the front page of this petition and identify its main features.

Discuss:

• What do you notice about the type of language that is used in this petition?
• Who is 'humble' and ' who is 'honourable'?
• Why do you think these words were used?
• What two things do people who sign a petition have to provide?

Look at the more recent petition and see if the information people have to provide about themselves has changed or remained the same.

If you wanted to organise a petition about some issue, what would you have to do? Decide upon an issue that is important to you. Prepare your petition using the official Petition Form from the Victorian Parliament website.

Make a chart, story map or other visual organiser to explain the process you would need to follow to get as many signatures as possible. Think about:

• the types of people you would need to approach
• the places you would go to get other members of the public to sign your petition
• to whom you would present your petition and why Fact Sheet 8 from the Parliament of Victoria will help you answer this question.
• what you might say to this person or these people
• what this person or persons should do with your petition
• what you could do if you did not receive a reply to your petition.

Think of other ways in which citizens try to get their message across when they do not agree with something that a government is doing. Ask family members and other adults in your community to help you with ideas. Which of these ways do you agree should be used in a democracy like ours and which ones do you disagree with? Give reasons for your answers.

Activity 2: Should women get the vote?

Look again at the 1900 Women's Suffrage Petition. Find the four reasons given to explain why women should get the vote.

Read the Anti-Women's Suffrage Petition. Find as many reasons as you can why some women believed they should not get the vote. List these reasons.

By the time of the 1908 Act that gave women the vote, similar legislation had been introduced sixteen times since 1890. There was only brief mention in Melbourne newspapers of the bill being debated in parliament and only one letter after the act became law. Most Members of Parliament supported the idea of the women's vote. However, two members of the Legislative Council were strongly opposed to the idea. Identify arguments against the measure in the record of the debate in the Legislative Council. What do these extracts tell you about the values of these two parliamentarians (Harwood and Embling) and people who supported their points of view?

Look at the Punch cartoon. Discuss the message behind this cartoon. Explain why you think it includes the words, 'Let Mr Harwood MLC tremble and beware'?

Activity 3: Can we make things work better?

The history of voting and elections raises some important issues.

As a home task, ask adult family members, friends or other people you know what they would like to see happen to improve the way citizens vote and the way elections are conducted in Australia, and why.

As a class or group decide upon two or more issues which you think are the most important ones to consider.

Now work with a partner to prepare a list of reasons for or against one of these issues. Present your ideas first to the class. Decide upon a class position about each issue. Your class position may be that X people in your class agree that there should be change, that Y people do not agree and Z people are unsure.

Think of ways to make your ideas known by other people such as:

• Victorian Electoral Commission, www.vec.vic.gov.au, phone 131832, fax 9629 8632
• Australian Electoral Commission, www.aec.gov.au, phone 13 2326, email info@aec.gov.au, fax 9285 7174
• Your state Members of Parliament, www.parliament.vic.gov.au. See 'Members' for contact details.
• The local community
• Your school community.

Previous activity | Back to top | Next activity

• Introductory activities
• Investigating the past
• Visiting the exhibition
• Going further
• Extension activities

• 1900 Women's Petition
• More recent petitions
• Petition Form
• Fact Sheet 8: Petitions
• Anti-Women's Petition
• Record of Legislative Council debate on women's vote
• Punch cartoon