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

Petitions have been a constant feature of proceedings in the House since Federation. Inherited from the UK House of Commons, petitioning still offers an important opportunity for Australians to seek action on matters of national concern.

In contrast with this longstanding tradition, the Petitions Committee is a more recent feature of the House. The first Standing Committee on Petitions was established at the beginning of the 42nd Parliament. The committee aimed to strengthen the status of petitions, and to ensure that the House could appropriately respond to them.

The role of the committee is to receive and process paper and electronic petitions. It can also inquire and report to the House on any matter relating to petitions and the petition system.

Each petition is carefully examined against the standing orders, and petitions must contain a valid request that the House is able to action.

As chair of the committee, I present petitions that meet requirements on sitting Mondays. Other members of the House can also present petitions. At the conclusion of the last sitting week, individual members had presented 39 paper petitions and 10 electronic petitions during the 45th Parliament.

After a petition is presented, the committee usually refers it to the relevant government minister for comment. The minister is asked to provide a written response to the petition within 90 days. Once provided to the committee, responses are presented to the House. While a response may not grant a petitioner's request, it can provide up-to-date information on the legislation or policy surrounding the topic, or explain why a certain decision has been made.

Mr Speaker, I look forward to reporting to the House at the conclusion of the committee's current inquiry into the future of petitioning. The committee will be speaking with petitions committees from the UK and Scottish parliaments over the coming days.