Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Acting Deputy President, I seek leave to table some documents and make some brief remarks.

Steve Hutchins (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for two minutes.

Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Acting Deputy President. I have a petition that was to be tabled by Senator Helen Coonan. There are some technical difficulties with the petition. I circulated this at the whips’ meeting last night. On every second page the petition does not have a heading, yet the first pages are quite correct, and some pages do not have a reference to the Senate. Those are the technical difficulties, and we accept that it does not meet the requirements of what a petition should be for presentation or tabling in the Senate. However, half the pages are correct, which would have enabled 3,000 signatures to be tabled. There are 6,000 signatures. So I seek leave of the Senate to table it as a document, noting that in its original form or intention it was to be a petition; however, it is technically not a petition.

Leave granted.