John Murphy (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker, as we near the end of this financial year, and in this last sitting week of the winter sittings, I would like to give a brief overview of petition trends over the last 12 months. Please note that I am speaking to the statistics collected up until today, which includes today’s announcement; but there is a good possibility that petitions will also be tabled by members during this sitting week.

There has been a 41 per cent increase in petitions tabled in the House this financial year compared to the previous one—that is, 183 petitions tabled this financial year, compared with 129 in the previous period. These figures are encouraging in that they demonstrate the continued confidence the general public have in the petitioning process. It appears that petitioning remains a method that Australian citizens embrace to put their views forward within the community, to the House and to the federal government, and to request action.

Of the 183 petitions tabled, 40 petitions, or 22 per cent of all petitions tabled, were tabled by members. These statistics echo the ongoing, and often very direct, participation of members in the petitions process, despite the option for petitions to be presented by me on sitting Mondays.

Ministerial response letters tabled have also increased in this period—from 79 tabled in the 2010-11 year to 134 tabled in this financial year. Much of this increase reflects the increased volume of petitions, rather than a significant increase in the number of petitions responded to. Ministerial responses have been one of the notable successes of the petitioning arrangements introduced in 2008, as they have proven to be thorough and timely. However, I would like to point out the exceptional strength of the ministerial response process as exemplified in statistics collated over the last 12 months.

A crude statistic of the ministerial response rate can be calculated from the number of response letters tabled, in comparison to the number of petitions tabled in the same period. This rate approximates 74 per cent, which compares favourably with the rate of 61 per cent in the previous period. However, this calculation underestimates the true rate of responses to petitions because one response letter may address more than one petition of the same or similar ilk. This is illustrated in statistics, which have been retained by the committee secretariat since February 2012, which document not only the number of ministerial response letters tabled but also the number of petitions these letters responded to.

Fifty-four response letters have been tabled since February 2012 but which have responded to 72 petitions. This discrepancy occurs because some petitions with identical terms, or those petitions tabled on the same subject matter within the same period of time, are not re-referred to a minister after a recent referral. Therefore, one response letter may respond to more than one petition, and each principal petitioner will receive the recently tabled response to that petition matter.

I would expect the trend in the last six months to be present across the full year. However, if we merely add these 18 responses from the last six months which are not reflected in a simple count of tabled letters, plus allowing for the 33 recently tabled petitions which have not yet received responses, the total responses approximate the total number of tabled petitions. Thus, the ministerial response rate is actually closer to a full 100 per cent. There is no doubt that this is an excellent result from a system introduced only in the previous parliament.

In summary, the statistics over the last 12 months tell a story of confidence, commitment and consideration—continued confidence by the public in a parliamentary process which has been used by generations of Australians; continued commitment by members and the House in supporting this long-enshrined activity; and due consideration given to each petition which is tabled in the House.