John Murphy (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I would like to take the opportunity today to briefly discuss the volume of petitions that I have just tabled on behalf of the Petitions Committee and to highlight an emerging trend.

Today's presentation included 19 separate petition matters, representing the views and concerns of a total of 18,443 citizens. If we compare the number of petitions presented by the chair of the committee at the same time last year, on 24 May 2010, we see that fewer petitions were tabled—a total of 13. In addition to the petitions presented by me as the chair of the committee, all members may choose to present petitions that have been found in order by the committee so they may further discuss the issue concerning their constituents and petitioners. There have been 10 presentations by members since the last chair's announcement on 21 March. In contrast there were two in the same period in 2010. This brings the total number of presentations during this period in 2011 to 29—a significant increase on the 15 petitions presented in the same time frame last year.

The increasing number of in-order petitions received this year highlights, I believe, two aspects of the House petitioning process. One is what appears to be an increasing engagement by the people of Australia with the House of Representatives. The other is a greater awareness by Australians of the way the House operates and a recognition that it follows certain rules. In this case, there appears to be a maturing appreciation of the standing orders governing petitioning. Since the establishment of the first Petitions Committee in 2008, the requirements of the House petitioning process have become more widely known and understood.

With increasing acceptance of, and access to, communications and information technology by people of all ages and walks of life, the petitioning requirements are being disseminated widely through the committee's website and communications via a public email address. This is in addition to telephone and postal communications and published information made available by the committee for distribution at members' electorate offices across Australia.

As the committee does not assess petitions on the merit of subject matter but on whether they are worded and collated in line with the specific requirements of the House, all petitions are assessed in the same way. Similarly, all prospective petitioners are offered the same procedural assistance to understand the petitioning requirements before they commence petitioning. This activity reduces the number of out-of-order petitions received.

Unfortunately not all petitions received by the committee meet the requirements of the House and, as such, cannot be tabled as petitions. It is disappointing to see cases where a great deal of time and effort has been spent on gathering signatures but these will not be recorded as petitions. It is encouraging, however, to see that more and more people are preplanning their petitioning activities by reading the committee's published material and by communicating with members' offices and the committee secretariat before they start signature collection.