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

Of the 17 petitions I present to the House today, sixteen are e-petitions. In total 309 e-petitions have now been presented to the House during the 45th Parliament, either by myself as Chair of the Petitions Committee or by individual members of the House. In contrast, 273 paper petitions have been presented to the House during this parliament.

These numbers continue to show how e-petitioning has successfully engaged Australians in petitioning the House. The committee reflected on the first years of e-petitioning during its recent inquiry into the House e-petitioning system. After hearing directly from users and learning from the experience of other parliaments, the committee recommended a number of enhancements to further simplify the e-petitioning process and improve the user experience. The committee hopes these improvements will see even more Australians create, sign and share e-petitions on matters of concern to them.

I look forward to updating the House further on the work of the Petitions Committee and as enhancements to the e-petitions system are progressed.