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

Last week I spoke about the six principles of petitioning which underpinned the House Procedure Committee’s review of the petitions process and which led in 2008 to changes to the standing orders governing petitioning. This week I will discuss the standing orders relating to preparing a petition and the reasons why these rules exist—to reinforce the fifth principal of petitioning: 'that the rules should be relevant and fair.'

Standing orders 204 and 205 govern, respectively, the rules for the form and content of petitions and the rules for signatures. Whilst preparing a petition should not be excessively difficult and the rules governing petitions should not prove unnecessarily onerous, there are sound reasons why these rules are necessary. For example, standing order 204 requires petitions to be addressed to the House of Representatives. A petition is a one-off document prepared for the attention of the House’s elected representatives. After a petition is tabled it becomes a House document and therefore cannot be tabled elsewhere—for example, in the Senate—nor can it be forwarded elsewhere. Therefore it must only be addressed to the House. For example, petitions addressed to the House must not also ask the Senate, specific members or ministers, the government or a political party to take action. These petitions would be considered out-of-order.

A document specifically addressed to the House allocates a responsibility for the House to respond in some way. However, a petition must refer to a matter on which the House has the power to act—if it does not have authority over a matter raised in a petition then it cannot respond. A petition to the House on a matter falling under local or state governance cannot be dealt with by the House. This is because the federal government does not have the power under the Constitution to take action and therefore the request of the petition cannot be answered.

This brings us to another facet of standing order 204: the petition must contain a request for action by the House. A request for action cannot merely be a statement such as, ‘We disapprove of the policy,’ nor can it be an aspiration like, ‘We want everyone to be artistic,' and it cannot be a threat of petitioner action.

Petitions must contain a reason for petitioning the House. This not only clarifies the request for action and ensures a thorough response to the matter but it also ensures resources are not wasted on frivolous or vexatious petitions. Similarly, standing order 204(c) stipulates that the language used in a petition must be moderate and it cannot request something that is illegal or promotes illegal activity.

The terms of a petition must not contain any alterations. This is to ensure that the original intent of the petition was not subsequently changed after signatories signed their support. Petitioners cannot retrospectively change words or make additions either by pasting or penning attachments. This rule keeps the process authentic, as does the requirement that a petition must be in English or accompanied by a certified translation.

The terms of a petition must not exceed 250 words. Although this may seem overly succinct, it is done for good reason—to ensure the matter is able to be concisely conveyed to the House and to provide a standardised approach so no petition is favoured over another. Similarly, letters, affidavits and any other documents, including photographs, do not form part of a petition and will be removed before tabling.

Standing order 204 states that the terms of a petition must be placed at the top of the first page and, per standing order 205, the first page must also state the full name and address of a clearly identified individual who organised the petition. This principal petitioner must sign the page using their handwritten original signature. Should the principal petitioner be a corporation, the official common seal of the company must be affixed instead of a signature.

Per standing order 204, all subsequent pages must have the request of the petition written at the top of each page, preceding names and signatures. And in line with standing order 205, no signatures can be copied, pasted or transferred. The rationale for this is that people signing petitions are actually signing to the cause identified, rather than on a blank page which could be used for any number of other petition requests or other invalid purposes. Signatures on the reverse of pages with terms on one side are also out of order—again, to ensure the genuine intentions of the signatories.

All signatures to the petition must be original handwritten versions written by the person whose name appears beside it. Only a petitioner incapable of signing may ask another person to sign on his or her behalf. This would be in the most exceptional of cases. This is because a person should only be bound by a petition which they understand and have actually signed for themselves. It ensures the validity of signatures. This is why, even though no age requirements are stipulated, young children are not appropriate signatories to petitions.

Finally, but in no way the least important, a member of the House of Representatives, per standing order 205(c), is unable to be a principal petitioner—and they cannot sign a petition either. This ensures the spirit of petitioning is maintained—that petitioning is undertaken by citizens to their elected representatives. This rule also maintains the independence of members who may be asked to assist petitioners with the requirements of petitioning, or to deliver a petition to the Petitions Committee.

I will speak more on members' roles in the petitioning process in my next statement in June.