Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I'm pleased to also be speaking on our Petitions Committee report relating to the inquiry Making voices heard—Inquiry into the e-petitioning system of the House of Representatives Petitions Committee. The inquiry examined the introduction of electronic petitioning and the public's response to it. Petitions generally—in whatever format, paper or electronic—are a really valuable way for individuals and communities to engage with all levels of government about issues that are important to them. In this day and age of increasing social media, it's vitally important that the parliament has adopted e-petitions, because we as parliamentarians know how increasing our interactions with constituents are through all these growing social media platforms.

Electronic petitioning has been discussed for a number of years, as e-petitioning was quite rightly seen as a means of reinvigorating petitioning the House and allowing people to generate support for their petitions online. It was great to see that, after a number of years in development, e-petitioning was introduced during the 45th Parliament. This inquiry allowed the committee to reflect on how the e-petition system has been received by both members of parliament and members of the general public. The committee looked at what was working well with the e-petition system and what could be done to improve that system.

The committee acknowledges all the users of e-petition system, and thanks those who made submissions to the inquiry or took time out to complete the online user survey. The survey received 293 responses. The committee received 18 submissions and two supplementary submissions to the inquiry. The committee held three public hearings in Canberra for the inquiry. As the committee Chair referred to, it also included hearing from a group of enthusiastic primary school students via video link from Marsfield in Sydney. It was great to see years 5 and 6 students engaging with the petitions process and the wider workers of the House. The committee also heard from a number of other parliaments about their e-petitions experiences, including from the Scottish Parliament, the House of Commons in Canada, the House of Representatives in New Zealand, the House of Commons in the UK and the Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament.

Since the introduction of e-petitioning to this parliament, the number of e-petitions presented to the House has closely matched or exceeded the number of paper petitions over the same period. What a great result that people are embracing it. The committee believes e-petitioning will continue to grow as people use social media and other online platforms to gain support for their causes. The changes to the e-petition system proposed by the committee aim to make submitting or signing an e-petition easier for all users. It is a great initiative in terms of having e-petitioning encouraging all Australians to get more involved their parliament and make their voices heard.

I would like to conclude by thanking the Chair, the member for Robertson, and all members of the committee who embraced the opportunities around electronic petitioning. I know all members of the House are committed to improving electronic petitioning. I would also like to thank the secretariat for their work in terms of this inquiry and, indeed, at all times for the committee as well. I think e-petitioning has a great future under this parliament and provides so many more opportunities for the general public to engage with their government.

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