Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This bumper crop of petitions are the petitions that were requested during the election period and approved by the committee in its first meetings. After four weeks gathering signatures, these petitions are now presented to the House.

These 173 petitions represent over 80,000 signatures from Australians seeking improvement or change. Twelve petitions had over 1,000 signatures each, with topics ranging across health, immigration, foreign affairs and taxation. Over 2,500 Australians would like Steve Irwin to be on the $5 note.

After presentation to the House these petitions will be referred to the relevant minister for a response. These responses are due within 90 days. Ministers are required to provide responses even when the matter relates to decisions or actions of a previous minister or a previous government.

The committee appreciates the efforts of ministers and their staff to respond to petitions in a timely way. However there are a number of petitions that have not yet received a response. Over the next few weeks the committee will send reminders to ministers with information about any outstanding petitions.

Ministerial responses are an essential link in the chain of the petitioning process and I look forward to presenting more in the future.