Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week was particularly busy for the Petitions Committee, with the receipt of a record number of paper petitions for this parliament. All 40 petitions on this report are paper petitions, 31 of which are part of a nationally-coordinated electorate-based campaign.

Petitioning the parliament is an age-old democratic tradition, and, while paper petitioning is the original and well-used format, I can assure you, Mr Speaker, that e-petitions remain a popular format for submitting petitions. At last count we were up to 397 e-petitions and 160 paper petitions for this parliament. As a comparison, recent parliaments have only received between 100 and 200 and we are only a year into the 45th Parliament.

E-petitioning provides electronic options, and members of the public continue to embrace this new style of petitioning. As part of the committee's inquiry into e-petitions last week, the committee took evidence from the ACT Legislative Assembly about their e-petition system. It was interesting to note that the ACT Legislative Assembly informed the committee that it has also noted a marked increase in petitions, both electronic and paper. It's heartening to hear positive feedback about how people are finding it easier to engage with parliament and have their concerns reach their elected representatives via petitions.

This week, the Petitions Committee looks forward to hearing from the Parliament of Tasmania on their e-petitioning system, as well as from representatives from the Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia about how our system can meet the needs of all Australians. I'll continue to provide updates to the House on the work of the Petitions Committee and the inquiry into e-petitions.