Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I present the fourth report of the Petitions Committee for the 46th Parliament.

I draw the attention of the House to an e-petition currently open for signatures until later this week. This petition relates to the issue of climate in Australia and has so far gathered over 300,000 signatures. This is the highest number of signatures for an e-petition in the House. The second largest e-petition was presented in 2018, with over 104,000 signatures, which requested the removal of the GST from sanitary products. The two largest recorded petitions to the House remain paper petitions. The largest, with 1,200,000 signatures, was presented in February 2014 and concerned funding support for community pharmacies. The second largest, with over 792,000 signatures, concerned taxation and beer prices, and was presented in December 2000.

It's clear that people power comes in both paper and online form. The committee continues to support both ways of petitioning the House. Some people choose to start a paper petition because they want to engage a small community about a local issue or because their targeted audience prefer to sign their names on paper, rather than on a smartphone. On the other hand, national issues may gain more traction through an online petition, which is more easily shared via social media or email. The House continues to receive paper petitions from a broad cross-section of the community, including schoolchildren. This tells us that the paper petition is still as relevant today as it was at Federation.

I look forward to further updating the House on the work of the Petitions Committee.