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

As usual, the petitions being presented today cover a wide range of topics, and this reflects the variety of issues that concern citizens and residents of Australia. Some of the subjects in today's petitions are keeping a post office open, rural health care, the AUKUS agreement and federal laws relating to the age of criminal responsibility.

Speaker, as you're aware, the Petitions Committee assesses each petition to ensure it complies with the standing orders. There are a number of requirements for petitions, but today I'd like to highlight two that I have spoken about previously. Firstly, a petition must refer to a matter on which the House can act. This usually means something for which the federal government is responsible. Petitions requesting action on matters that are dealt with by state or territory governments or local councils should be directed to those jurisdictions. In many cases, when a petition to the House is ruled out of order on this basis, the committee advises the petitioner of where they could redirect their petition. However, it's a shame to see requests for action delayed for this reason.

Secondly, I remind petitioners that language used in a petition must be moderate. I acknowledge that many petitions relate to grievances and that the experience of writing a petition may be challenging or stressful. Even so, the language used needs to be considered moderate by the committee. The committee does not accept petitions that contain derogatory, offensive or abusive language. In line with the requirements of the House, petitions may not contain insults to members of parliament, the judiciary or the Governor-General.

In addition, petitions should not use language that discloses personal information about a private individual. The committee usually rules out of order petitions that are about someone who is not the principal petitioner or not already a public figure. Language evolves over time, and the Petitions Committee also has some discretion over how it applies the requirement for moderate language in petitions. In essence, though, the terms of a petition should be respectful and based on reasoned argument. I thank the House.