Parliamentary Petitions

Petitioning is one of the traditional forms by which citizens can make requests direct to Parliament. A Petition is a formal request signed by at least one person and placed before the Parliament with the object of persuading the Parliament to take some particular action.

It is the only direct means by which people can communicate with the Parliament – all other processes entail communicating through a parliamentary representative (Member or Senator) or a parliamentary committee. Petitions do require the involvement of a Member (or Senator) to present the petition, but the politician cannot alter the terms or place his or her own interpretation on it.

What is a petition?

A petition is basically a request for action. Any citizen or resident of Australia, or group of citizens or residents, may petition the House of Representatives or the Senate or the Queensland Parliament to take action.

For example, petitions may ask the parliament to introduce legislation, or to repeal or change existing legislation, or to take action for a certain purpose or for the benefit of particular people. Less commonly a petition from an individual citizen may seek the redress of a personal grievance, for example, the correction of an administrative error.

The subject of a petition must be a matter on which the parliament has the power to act, that is, it must be a federal issue (if your are petitioning the House of Representatives or the Senate) or a state issue (if you are petitioning the Queensland Parliament), and one involving legislation or government administration.

Drawing up the petition

Care must be taken in the wording of petitions as there are certain rules on their form and content, and these differ between the House of Representatives, the Senate and the Queensland Parliament. See below to download copies of the various rules.

Collecting signatures

Although a petition only needs to have one signature to be accepted, it will appear more representative of public feeling if it is signed by as many people as possible. Again, different rules apply to the collection of signatures depending on where you intend to table the petition - see below for more information.

Getting the petition presented

A petition can only be presented to the Parliament by a Member (or Senator). Although a Member is not bound to present a petition sent for presentation, it is traditionally accepted that he or she will present it, irrespective of personal views. Presentation of a petition by a Member does not mean that the Member necessarily agrees with its content.

The presenting of petitions to parliament can be a good opportunity to obtain media attention around your issue, especially where the politician tabling the signatures is doing so because he or she supports the cause.

Ministerial response

The issues raised in every petition presented to Parliament are referred by the Clerk to the Minister responsible for the matter which is the subject of the petition. Standing Orders (the rules of the parliament) permit the Minister to respond to a petition by lodging a written response.

E-Petitions

The Queensland Parliament has recently introduced electronic petitions (E-Petitions) which are petitions conducted online.

This innovation allows Queensland residents to “sign” petitions on the Parliamentary website, before they are tabled in the Parliament.

For more detailed information on E-Petitions, visit: http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/petitions/ 

For more information:

Queensland Parliament:
http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/petitions/ 

Federal House of Representatives:
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/info/infosheets/is11.pdf 

Federal Senate:
http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/pubs/guides/briefno21.pdf