Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The referral of petitions to ministers is a valuable part of the petitioning process. Most petitions presented to the House are referred to the minister responsible for the matters raised in the petition for a written response. Under the standing orders, ministers are expected to provide a response within 90 days of the petition's presentation.

For some petitions, it can be difficult to determine which minister is best placed to provide a response. For others, the issues raised can relate to more than one portfolio area. For these reasons, there can be some back and forth between the secretariat and departments throughout the referral process.

Unfortunately, the Petitions Committee was recently made aware that a petition had not received a response because it had been referred to the wrong minister. On behalf of the committee, I'd like to apologise to the petitioners for the delay. I note that the petition has now been referred to the correct minister and I look forward to presenting a response in due course.

The committee has taken this as an opportunity to review its procedures for the referral of petitions to ministers, particularly in cases where a petition could potentially be referred to more than one minister. When referring a petition, the committee will now ask the minister to advise the committee if a petition should be redirected. The committee will also track the transfer of petitions between ministers more closely.

The committee will continue to work to ensure that Australian citizens and residents who petition the House receive a thoughtful response within a reasonable timeframe.

I'd like to highlight the role that really key petitions have played in the history of Australia. One of those was in this parliament just last week: a copy and some of the original of the Larrakia petition. It was here as part of a showcase of our national collecting institutions. The Larrakia petition begins this way:

The British settlers took our land. No treaties were signed with the tribes.

It goes on to contrast that with:

The British Crown signed treaties with the Maoris in New Zealand and the Indians in North America.

This petition was an appeal to the Queen for help. It was created by the Larrakia people in 1972. They are the traditional owners of the Darwin region in the Northern Territory. At the time of the petition, they were fighting for their ownership of a stretch of coastal land near Darwin to be acknowledged.

As I said, the Larrakia people addressed this petition to Queen Elizabeth II. To create it, they organised for papers to be circulated to Aboriginal communities across mainland Australia. In these communities, supporters of the petition signed the paper with either their signature or a thumbprint. Over a thousand signatures and thumbprints were collected. The papers were then returned to Darwin, where the finished petition was pasted together in a more-than-three-metre-long scroll.

In 1972, when there was a royal visit to Darwin planned by Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth's sister, the Larrakia people camped outside Government House, where she was staying, in the hope that they could present the petition. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, and the Larrakia people then patched the petition, which had become torn during that process, with sticky tape, and they mailed it to Buckingham Palace. When Buckingham Palace received the petition, they forwarded it to the Australian government via the Governor-General. It was placed on file in the Department of Aboriginal affairs in 1972, and that's how it became part of the collection of the National Archives. And the National Archives, as I say, brought a facsimile of that petition to the parliament last week, and I know many in this chamber visited the national collection showcase and saw it. They also brought some of the original pages with them.

The Larrakia petition is one of the most significant documents created by First Nations activists in the 1970s. The calls for change made by the petition, including land rights, treaty and political representation, clearly continue to have significance for all of us today.

The other very significant petition that originated in the Northern Territory is the Yirrkala bark petitions, which now the National Museum of Australia holds, and I believe parts of it are displayed in this place. In August 1963, two bark petitions were presented to the parliament, to the House of Representatives. It was the Yolngu's first formal attempt to have their land rights recognised. This is how significant these petitions are. It was also the first time documents incorporating First Nations ways of representing relationships to land were recognised by the parliament. It was on the back of bauxite being found and moves by the Menzies government to establish a mine and processing of bauxite in north-east Arnhem Land near Yirrkala. Anyone who's been to the Garma Festival, which is held just outside Yirrkala, will know this part of the world—an incredibly special part of the world.

Kim Beazley Sr, having visited that part of the world, suggested the Yolngu send a petition to federal parliament in a form that expressed their culture. They had assistance to help draft the text, and it was then typed in two languages: English and Gumatj. Eight similar copies of the text were made, and four were pasted onto bark. It was then painted with designs in ochre, charcoal and pipeclay around the edges, and it remains an extraordinary piece of work and demonstrates why it is so important to have this cultural preservation given the role it has played historically.

On 14 August 1963, one bark and one paper petition were tabled in the House of Representatives. The petitions directly led to the establishment of the Select Committee on Grievances of Yirrkala Aborigines, Arnhem Land Reserve. They were the first petitions in Australian history to instigate such an immediate parliamentary response. The committee then travelled to Darwin and Yirrkala to hear evidence from the Yolngu and Northern Territory officials.

This is one of the significant roles this Petitions Committee plays. People across every electorate can go online and create a petition. Of course, the process has changed, but it is still possible to present paper petitions to the parliament. In the last few weeks, we have provided to every member of parliament and senator a one-page fact sheet so that their constituents are all able to do something that meets the criteria. There are strict rules around how petitions are formed, and I want to thank my fellow committee members, including the deputy chair, the member for Bonner, for the work that they do in helping to determine whether petitions are in order or out of order. This is something we do regularly so that the volume of petitions is moved through the process and then referred to ministers so that ministers can then respond. I think it is really important that people appreciate that these petitions can play an extremely significant part in our parliamentary process and I encourage you to talk to your constituents—through you, Speaker—in order to ensure we continue to have a high standard of petitions to this parliament.

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