Oregon has a referendum mechanism, but the Governor, Kate Brown, has spearheaded an effort to preclude it using emergency clauses in legislation, creating a time limit to implement regulations that prevent referenda from being used to head off unsavory laws, such as carbon taxes that harshly impact rural areas (as began the Yellow Jacket movement in France) and industries like farms and resource management.
Best gear up for a major fight if you want a referendum process. The Democrat party has a supermajority at the state level here, and Republicans were unable to stop noxious bills from passing complete with emergency clauses, such as the aforementioned carbon tax, so they lit out for other jurisdictions, to cause lack of quorum to prevent passage of legislation they could not qualify. Gov. Brown sent the State Police to round up errant senators, insofar as they remained within the state. One Sen. Boquist had been a private paramilitary prior to entering government service, and the State Police refrained from too diligently seeking him.
<a href=“https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/06/oregon-senate-republicans-flee-state-in-protest-of-cap-and-trade-bill-denying-dems-quorum-governor-dispatches-police-to-arrest-them/">"This is what I told the superintendent,” Boquist said, referring to OSP Superintendent Travis Hampton. “Send bachelors and come heavily armed. I’m not going to be a political prisoner in the state of Oregon. It’s just that simple.”
A spokeswoman for the Oregon State Police did not respond to an inquiry Wednesday afternoon about whether the agency is investigating Boquist’s threat.
In an email to The Oregonian/OregonLive Wednesday afternoon, Boquist stuck with his earlier statement and rejected a reporter’s characterization of his threat to troopers as “thinly veiled.”
“Nothing thinly veiled,” Boquist wrote. “I have been in political coup attempts. I have been held hostage overseas. I have been jailed politically overseas … Not going to be arrested as a political prisoner in Oregon period.”
That was how the impasse was ended, and the Democrats have stopped the practice. That's what it took though. Australia may not be as able to prosecute such a plan, bereft of armed militias as here informed Gov. Brown they'd be attending the next special legislative session, causing it to be canceled. Perhaps an emu stampede through parliament there might accomplish something similar. Emus are certainly cantankerous enough to do the job.
Best to boot the bastards out, and not replace them, IMHO.