The Byron de jure Assembly is where the residents of the Byron Shire can meet to raise and discuss the issues relative to their community.
The term “de jure” means lawful. The people in their sovereign capacity have the right to assemble at any time to make lawful decisions regarding their affairs as well as to choose and direct their representatives and public servants.
Elections, referendums which are also lawful ways for the people to exercise their sovereign authority and express their collective will, are very limited. These are held years apart and poorly address all the issues the people would like to decide upon.
If they cannot exercise satisfactorily their sovereign authority, it is the responsibility of the sovereigns, the people, to fix it.
The de jure Assembly is a people’s initiative to restore or improve a governance by and for the people. It is a place where the official collective will of the people is created and where lawful orders to their representatives and public servants can be formulated.
In the Byron de jure Assembly, every person of good standing aged 18+who has been a resident of the Byron Shire for over 6 months can participate and vote.
Those who choose not to participate in a particular assembly meeting, delegate their voice and their votes to the participants and accept their decisions.
The Byron de jure Assembly was formed in Byron Bay, Australia, and formally established late 2021 by a small group of people from around Byron shire.
To run the Assembly, a structure was created based on the framework recommended by the PGSD (Peoples Government Services Department). It consists of a Council, Restoration Team, and a set of Committees and Sub-Committees that work together to perform tasks across the community such as assessing needs, identifying restoration solutions, carrying out restoration projects, building cases, and formulating and sending orders to the appropriate public services.
Besides facilitating the assembly’s meetings, an important role of the Assembly’s Council is to liaise with the Global Repository to access the funds allocated to the governance and the restoration of the Byron Shire.