Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That standing orders 207 and 209 be amended to read as follows: 207 Presenting a petition A petition may be presented in one of two ways:

(a)

The Chair of the Standing Committee on Petitions shall present petitions and/or reports of that committee, and the Chair and one other Member of the Committee may make statements concerning petitions and/or such reports presented, in accordance with standing order 34 (order of business). The time provided may extend for no more than 10 minutes.

(b)

A Member may present a petition during:

(i)

the period of Members’ statements in the House, in accordance with standing order 43;

(ii)

the period of Members’ constituency statements in the Main Committee, in accordance with standing order 193;

(iii)

adjournment debate in the House in accordance with standing order 31, and in the Main Committee in accordance with standing order 191; and

(iv)

grievance debate in accordance with standing order 192B.

(a)

After a petition is presented to the House, the Standing Committee on Petitions may refer a copy of the petition to the Minister responsible for the administration of the matter raised in the petition.

(b)

The Minister shall be expected to respond to a referred petition within 90 days of presentation by lodging a written response with the Committee.

(c)

The Chair of the Petitions Committee shall announce any ministerial responses to petitions. After the announcement, ministerial responses shall be printed in Hansard and published on the House’s website.

Amendments to standing orders 207 and 209 as they appear on the Notice Paper seek to permanently adopt the orders that were introduced in the 42nd Parliament as sessional orders for the term of the previous parliament. For the information of members, on 12 February 2008 the government introduced amendments to the standing orders which saw the creation of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Petitions. The committee was established to receive and process petitions and to inquire into and report to the House on any matter relating to petitions and the petition system.

The government sought to increase ministerial accountability in responding to the issues and petitions of concerned citizens. On 24 June 2008 standing orders 207 and 209 were first adopted to allow for the effective operation and performance of the Petitions Committee. Standing order 207 dealt with the manner and options available to members to present a petition to the House. Standing order 209 allowed for a presented petition to be referred to a minister by the Petitions Committee for ministerial consideration and response.

After an original six-month trial period the standing orders were extended on 1 December 2008 for the remainder of the 42nd Parliament. The amendments today simply seek to permanently adopt the sessional orders and incorporate them into the standing orders.

The establishment of the committee shows that the government is committed to ensuring that the voices of concerned citizens are heard and, more importantly, that ministers are accountable in responding to such concerns. During the 41st Parliament 761 petitions were received on various subjects of concern and contained a total of 598,877 signatures. Of these, only two received a ministerial response from ministers of the previous coalition government. With the parliamentary reform introduced by the Labor government in 2008, during the 42nd Parliament 327 petitions were received, containing a total of 488,776 signatures. Of these, 203—or 62 per cent—received a ministerial response from ministers.

This is an amendment that has the support of the House. Members have appreciated the fact that they are able to inform those citizens in their electorates who sign petitions that they do go somewhere and do get a response. The Petitions Committee introduced in the last parliament has therefore been, I think, a successful reform which all members are keen to see continue. I pay tribute to the former Chief Government Whip and former member for Chifley, Roger Price, who was really responsible for driving this reform. I am sure he will be pleased to note that it is now being introduced as a permanent reform into the parliament. These amendments are necessary to allow the continued effective performance of the Petitions Committee, which we will of course form when we set up the committee processes in the current fortnight. That is why I am bringing this forward this morning. I commend the motion to the House and I thank the opposition for their support for this reform.

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Housing and Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This motion on petitions to permanently adopt the orders introduced in the 42nd Parliament as sessional orders does have the support of the House. The changes that were made to the way petitions are presented, and responded to by ministers, have been beneficial. Each year tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Australians right throughout this land sign petitions to both this House and the other place. They do so in good faith, believing that some note will be taken of their petition by people responsible for making decisions in this place.

The change which allows members to speak to the petition they are presenting on behalf of their constituents or citizens of Australia places more force behind the presentation of the petition. As we all know, previously we had a situation where once a week, I think, the Clerk would read the petitions to the parliament and then they went into a black hole—somewhere into the archives of this building, I presume, or wherever else parliamentary records are archived. Now there is a process allowing members to speak to the petition on behalf of those citizens of Australia and then, equally importantly, there is a process to ensure a response is provided to those people who have taken the time to petition the parliament about a matter which they believe is important—a response from the government. So this has been a worthwhile and beneficial improvement to the system that operated in the past and, as I said, it is a matter which has the support of all members of the House. It certainly has the support of members of the coalition and we look forward to its continued operation in this parliament.

Question agreed to.