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

Mr Speaker, each year the House of Representatives receives hundreds of petitions from Australian citizens and residents. If the Petitions Committee finds that a petition meets the requirements as set out in the standing orders, the petition is published on the Parliament's website and is presented to the House. Once presented, a petition becomes part of the official record of the House and its terms are included in the Hansard for that day.

In addition to this, the Petitions Committee may also refer a petition to the Minister responsible for the matters raised, for a written response. Under the standing orders, a Minister is expected to provide the response within 90 days.

Almost all petitions received by the House are referred to a Minister for a written response. However, the Petitions Committee is currently seeking feedback on this approach from petitioners and other interested community members.

The introduction of electronic petitioning in 2016 has influenced the volume and nature of petitions received by the House. Given the ease of electronic petitioning, it's not surprising that there has been a significant increase in the number of petitions received in recent years. The total number of petitions presented to the House has jumped from 263 in the 44th Parliament, to 799 in the 45th Parliament, to 1761 in the last Parliament. So far this Parliament, 644 petitions have been presented.

There has also been an increase in the number of petitions received with a very small number of signatures; and more people are choosing to submit multiple petitions.

Mr Speaker, the ministerial referral process is a valuable part of the House petitions system. What we are seeking feedback on is whether petitions with only a small number of signatures should be referred. In our discussions, the Committee has considered the benefits of providing Ministerial responses to petitioners, as well as the allocation of resources needed to coordinate and prepare a considered written response. We also want to ensure that petitions with a large amount of community support continue to receive responses of substance from the relevant Minister, in a timely manner.

As part of its review, the Committee has looked at procedures in other Westminster parliaments. In the House of Commons in the United Kingdom, petitions with 10,000 or more signatures receive a government response. In the Canadian House of Commons, petitions must receive 500 signatures to be presented in the House and referred to a Minister. Some Australian state and territory parliaments also have a signature threshold for the referral of petitions for ministerial response, and others don't.

In the spirit of petitioning, the Petitions Committee has decided to ask the Australian people for their views. An electronic survey is currently available on the House of Representatives petitions homepage on the Parliament's website. It will be on the website for four weeks and we look forward to hearing from as many people as possible. The results of the survey will inform our approach to referring petitions moving forward and I look forward to updating the House in due course.

I thank the House.