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

Today I am only tabling ministerial responses. Because of the timing of committee meetings over December and January, there are no petitions ready to present. However, the holiday period did not show any reduction in the number of petitions and requests. There are currently 75 petitions on the website open for signatures that will be presented in future sitting weeks.

In September 2022 there were 171 outstanding ministerial responses to petitions that had been presented in the previous parliament. Late last year, the committee conducted a review of responses that had not yet been received and sent out reminders to ministers of their obligation to respond to petitions. This obligation comes from the House and includes petitions that were referred to a former minister or former government.

The reminders led to an increase of responses to older petitions from current ministers. The review has also resulted in a few responses from previous ministers coming to light that had not yet been presented. These responses are being presented today. The committee is checking its processes to ensure all responses are presented in a timely way in the future.

I look forward to updating the House further on the work of the Petitions Committee.