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/ Queensland Parliamentary Library Research & Reference SectionRESEARCH & REFERENCE BRIEF
To:Attention: / From: David Embury
Subject: Largest Petitions Tabled in Australian Parliaments
You asked for the largest single petitions, in terms of number of signatures, that have been tabled in Australian parliaments, including the subject matter of the petition and who presented it. These are petitions that have been tabled in the House of Representatives and the Senate, in Queensland and in the other state and territory parliaments.
Your inquiry was farmed out to the parliamentary libraries in each of the other jurisdictions, and their replies have been incorporated below.
House of Representatives
The number of signatories to each petition has only been recorded since 1988. Since then the petition with the greatest number of signatures was one presented by Hon Simon Crean (ALP, Hotham) on 4 December 2000 concerning taxation and beer prices, declared to have been signed by 792,985 persons. The Hansard entry from 4 December 2000 follows:
Goods and Services Tax
Beer
To the Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives assembled in Parliament:
This petition of certain citizens of Australia draws to the attention of the House that the Government expects prices for sales of draught beer over the bar to rise by around 7 to 9 per cent as a result of the GST tax package.
This expected price rise is much greater than the 1.9 per cent promised by the Prime Minister before the last election when he said: `There'll be no more than a 1.9 per cent rise in ordinary beer' (John Laws Program, 23 September 1998).
This expected price rise is also much greater than that promised by the Prime Minister before the last election when he said `Across the board there is virtually no change in relation to alcohol. A tiny CPI equivalent rise in relation to ordinary beer. Perhaps a small reduction for low-alcohol beer.' (Alan Jones Program, 14 August 1998).
Your petitioners therefore request the House to call on the Prime Minister to honour his promise that beer prices will not rise by more than 1.9 per cent as a result of the GST.
by Mr Crean (from 792,985 citizens).
Senate
The Senate has information from 1996 onwards. The largest Senate petition was to repeal the GST legislation and hold an inquiry. It was tabled by Sen Len Harris (Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, Qld) on 14 August 2000 with 149,332 signatures. See the Hansard entry below:
Goods and Services Tax
Repeal
To the Honourable the President and Members of the Senate in Parliament assembled:
The petition of residents of the nation of Australia draws to the attention of the Senate that:
1. A majority of electors in the 1998 federal election were not in favour of the GST
2. Alternative taxation regimes were not properly considered.
Your petitioners humbly ask the Senate to repeal the GST legislation and to instigate an inquiry to thoroughly investigate alternative taxation regimes.
by Senator Harris (from 149,332 citizens).
Queensland
The largest petition in the history of the Queensland Parliament was presented by Mr Santo Santoro (Liberal, Clayfield) on 12 November 1996. The petition from 412,490 petitioners requested the House to not reduce shopping hours. The same day, Cabinet announced that trading hours would remain the same in Queensland, retaining weekday trading for shops until 9pm.
The actual wording of the petition was as follows:
TO: The Honourable the Speaker and the Members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland
The Petition of the citizens of Queensland draws to the attention of the House that the
State Government has just completed a thorough and expensive review of the current trading
hours and found that 66% of Queensland consumers wanted the choice and flexibility of
current trading hours. After considering more than 200 submissions from all sections of
the community, an independent Inquiry, commissioned by your Government, said
current trading hours should remain.
But there are now indications that the State Government will ignore its own Inquiry and
cut back trading hours.
A reduction in trading hours will mean Queensland consumers will lose the right to choose when and where they shop; it will threaten thousands of jobs in metropolitan, regional and rural Queensland, and it will jeopardize millions of dollars of planned investment. Your petitioners therefore request the House to not reduce shopping hours.
Name and Address of Principal Petitioner
Retailers Association of Queensland Limited
4th Floor
293 Queen Street
Brisbane Qld. 4000
New South Wales
The largest petition ever presented to the NSW Parliament opposed pharmacy
Deregulation and was tabled by the Hon Dr Peter Wong (Unity Party) in the
Legislative Council 4 May 2004
Dr Wong presented a petition from approximately 500,000 citizens of NSW stating that the National Competition Policy Amendments (Commonwealth Financial Penalties) Bill will destroy the small business model of professionally responsible community pharmacies endorsed in the past and praying that the House oppose such legislation which undermines the principle of ownership of pharmacies by pharmacists and blocks any measures that will facilitate a shift to large corporate or supermarket ownership of pharmacies and the demise of small family business pharmacies leading to a lower standard of service.
Victoria
The Victorian Legislative Assembly only keeps statistics on petitions dating back to 1985. The largest single petition tabled since 1985 was on 29 October 1987 by Mrs Carolyn Hirsh (ALP, Wantirna) relating to police staffing and resources, and had 65,455 signatures.
The wording of the petition was:
Seeking that the Government take action to increase the staff and resources of the Victoria Police Force in order to enable it to protect the community against the large increase in all types of crime.
There were also petitions tabled 13 April 1995 by a number of members relating to terminal gate petrol pricing which between all the members had a total of 65,588 signatures. The petitions were presented by Mr Plowman, Mr Treasure, Mr Ryan, Mr Jasper, Mr Maughan and Mr Kilgour bearing 11,005, 8,520, 10,203, 13,115, 9,186, and 13,559 signatures respectively.
The wording of this petition was:
Seeking that the Government support the introduction of a system of terminal gate pricing as recommended by the Victorian Coalition Back Bench Petrol Pricing Committee.
The Victorian Legislative Council does not keep statistics in relation to the number of signatories of petitions. However, they cannot recall there being a petition in the Legislative Council with more signatories than the two mentioned above.
Tasmania
The largest single petition on a single topic ever received by the Tasmanian Parliament was presented to the House of Assembly 17 June 1981 by the Hon Michael Barnard (ALP, Bass), Deputy Premier and Minister for Health Services.
This petition was signed by 36,980 persons praying for:
… sufficient funds for the re-establishment of normal services of the Royal Hobart Hospital … (and related matters).
South Australia
The largest single petition received in the South Australian Parliament was 102,501 signatures presented by Hon Mike Rann (ALP, Ramsay) to the House of Assembly 20 October 1999.
This “home invasions” petition requested that the House urge the Government to increase prison sentences for persons convicted of robbery with violence of residential property.
Western Australia
The largest single petition to the Western Australia Parliament contained 99,840 signatures. It was presented to the Legislative Assembly by the Hon Edgar Rushton, Minister for Transport (Liberal, Dale) 11 April 1979:
… praying that the Government give further consideration to its decision to close the Perth-Fremantle railway.
Australian Capital Territory
The largest petition tabled in theACTLegislative Assembly contained 39,874 signatures and was presented by Paul Osborne (Independent, Brindabella) 27 June 1996. The petition requested that the Assembly vote against the Government's proposed restricted shopping hours legislation.
The petition read as follows:
To the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory:
The petition of certain residents of the Australian Capital Territory draws to the attention of the Assembly:
that any legislation to restrict shopping hours in the ACT will be against the interests of shoppers and will cause job losses.
Your petitioners therefore request the Assembly to vote against the Government’s proposed restricted shopping hours legislation.
Northern Territory
The largest single petition of 6,332 signatures was presented by Gerry Wood (Independent, Nelson) to the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly on 17 October 2001.
The petition read:
To the Speaker and members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly. We the undersigned citizens of the Northern Territory do respectively request:
1. Darwin Harbour be declared a national conservation park;
2. no further development occur on the Middle Arm Peninsula (including Wickham Point) until a total and independent assessment of cumulative affects of such developments is completed;
3. a risk assessment of the gas and petrochemical developments to the people of Darwin and surrounding districts be undertaken as a matter of urgency; ` and
4. the other options for the siting of the gas and petrochemical developments, eg Gunn Point Industrial Precinct, the Koolpinyah area, be thoroughly investigated with full community participation;
And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
30 September 2005 / Signature: / Phone:
3406 7312