Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The four petitions that I present today are paper petitions, each with one signature only—that of the principal petitioner. One signature is the minimum required for a petition to be presented to the House. The first signature of each petition is always the principal petitioner, so for these petitions no other signatures were collected.

Some may find it unusual that only one signature is needed, but the committee believes it's the right of all Australians to have easy and accessible avenues to engage with their parliament. In fact, in the previous parliament during its review of the standing orders in relevant practice, the committee reported that it did not support setting a higher minimum signature threshold. The committee decided this could create a barrier for people to engage with parliament who may not have been able to gain further support for their petition. During this review, the committee also found the petitions with the single signature made up a small amount of the overall petitions. Of the 719 petitions presented during the 45th Parliament, only 26 had one signature.

On a final note, I'd like to acknowledge the retirement of a very valued member of the secretariat. Adrienne Batts has been in the parliamentary service for over 22 years, and more recently she's provided such professional and friendly service in the support of the Petitions Committee. Thank you so much, Adrienne, and best wishes for your future and your retirement. Thank you, Mr Speaker. The committee looks forward to further updating the House on its work.