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

Madam Speaker, firstly, on behalf of the Petitions Committee I wish to congratulate you on your appointment to the office of Speaker and thank you for your valued contribution as a member of the Petitions Committee until your recent high appointment.

Madam Speaker, as you know, standing order 204 is one of the primary standing orders outlining the content and format requirements of petitioning the House. Most of the conditions are quite straightforward; however, a couple of the standing order requirements cause consternation for some prospective petitioners. Today I will discuss one of these areas—paragraph (a), sub-paragraph (ii) of standing order 204—which requires that 'a petition must refer to a matter on which the House has the power to act'.

The legislative powers and governance responsibilities of the federal parliament are limited to particular subjects as listed in sections 51 and 52 of the Australian Constitution. These sections define the legislative powers of the Commonwealth; with section 52 detailing the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal parliament.

Some of the powers of section 51 include a mixture of exclusive powers and some powers which may be exercised in conjunction with the states. For example, up until 1961 the states utilised their own individual marriage legislation. Even though the Commonwealth had the ability to enact legislation for marriage, as per section 51, it did not actually legislate until the passing of the Marriage Act in 1961. This legislation then superseded the state marriage laws because the Commonwealth exercised its power to legislate.

As you would be aware, Madam Speaker, the subject area has been a frequent topic of petitioning to this House. Commonwealth legislative power, and thus government administration of laws and development of policy, includes areas of defence, external or foreign affairs, interstate and international trade, taxation, foreign trading and financial corporations, marriage and divorce, immigration, bankruptcy, and interstate industrial conciliation and arbitration.

Over time, some matters administered by the states have formally shifted to the Commonwealth through referrals from the states. The underlying broad Commonwealth powers were created at Federation but were not utilised immediately. For example, state legislation on terrorism has been variously referred to the Commonwealth under the Criminal Code Act 1995. Again, these referred subject matters are outlined in the Australian Constitution. Section 96 of the Constitution also allows the Commonwealth to make grants of money to the states and territories, for any purpose, tied to certain conditions. For example, three subject areas which fall under state legislative responsibility—education, health and transport—are all areas where the Commonwealth has provided special purpose funding under section 96. An example of this which was a subject petitioned for and against was funding for the School Chaplaincy Program.

Although publicly available and not a long document, the Australian Constitution is quite complicated for the average Australian to interpret, so it is unsurprising that petitioners may sometimes be confused as to whether the concern of their petition is a matter for this House. Sometimes it is easy to determine whether a petition's request is a matter for the House if the request is to amend or repeal existing federal legislation. The House cannot, of course, make changes to the regulation of other jurisdictions. It may, however, influence other jurisdictions via tied funding or influence an outcome through COAG arrangements or via the Commonwealth's international obligations through treaties—for example, in areas of environmental protection and heritage.

Besides the extent of Commonwealth legislative powers there are other elements which may determine whether a petition request is a matter on which this House can act. For example, petitions requesting private organisations or individuals to take action are not matters on which the House can act. Organisations and individuals operating within the laws required of them can conduct their businesses and affairs as they choose. The House cannot direct them to act in a particular way. Also, petitioners cannot petition the House for investigations or rulings into criminal or civil matters; these matters, as you know, are entirely for the police and/or the courts to handle. This concept underpins the basic framework of the separation of our constitutional powers. Similarly, the House cannot action a request for the removal of a member of parliament on the desires of the petitioners. As you know, this is provided for in section 8 of the Parliamentary Privileges Act 1987.

I am aware of your distinguished service on that committee also, Madam Speaker, and that of the member for New England. Members are elected representatives and, as such, providing they are not disqualified per section (44) of the Australian Constitution, a member of parliament would only lose their seat during their term if they pass away, are absent without leave or resign. These conditions underpin the very foundations of Australia’s parliamentary democracy.

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member's time is about to expire—

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

Finally, it is worth noting that petitioners may avail themselves of all the resources the committee provides to assist petitioners understand the requirements of the petitioning standing orders; however, any research into their subject matter concern, and the drafting of their petition, is entirely a matter for petitioners. Once a petition is finalised and sent to the committee it will be assessed by the committee against all the House’s petitioning requirements and, if it is compliant, it can be presented in the House. I am very sorry, Madam Speaker; I lost track of time.