Due to the impacts of COVID-19 on the House sitting pattern, some petitioning activities may be interrupted. This includes the presentation of petitions and ministerial responses which would normally occur when the House of Representatives is sitting. The Committee aims to keep these interruptions to a minimum. It expects to meet regularly to consider petitions and allow approved electronically lodged petitions to gather signatures Updates about petitioning activity will be made available here as known.

On this page you can find out how to submit either an e-petition or a paper petition. You can look for petitions to sign and sign them. You can see all the petitions that have been submitted during all stages of their progress including presentation to the House, referral to a Minister and read the response from the Minister.

Please note: You must be an Australian citizen or resident of Australia to create or sign a petition.

How do I submit an e-petition?

You must be a resident or citizen of Australia to sign a petition. Simply click on the link below or in the side bar and complete the all the required fields. You will need to provide the ‘terms’ of your petition which is what you are asking the House to do (your request) and explaining the reasons (your reasons) why you would like this to happen. Once you have completed this, you will need to provide your personal details. After acceptance of the terms and conditions you will need to go through a short authentication process. Following this, you will receive an email from the system that will contain a link that you will need to verify, which has eight hours validity. Once you have verified the link, your petition is then ready for consideration.

Request a new e-petition



How do I sign an e-petition?

Simply click on the link below or in the side bar and search for the petition you wish to sign. You can search by petition number or content. Once you have found the petition you wish to sign, you will need to provide your name and email address so that the system can verify your signature. After acceptance of the terms and conditions, you click the sign button then you will need to go through a short authentication process. Following this, you will receive an email from the system that will contain a link to verify, which has eight hours validity. Once you have verified the link, your signature has been registered against that petition.

Sign an e-petition

What if I want to submit a paper petition?

The Standing Committee on Petitions welcomes petitions in either electronic format or paper format. Requirements for e-petitions and paper petitions are here and there are some extra considerations to keep in mind when planning to submit a paper petition:

paper petitions may take longer to process due to the need to be checked and counted

before you start collecting signatures you should check very carefully that your petition meets the petition requirements, particularly the word count of 250 words and the content of the terms, and

all signatures on your paper petition need to be originals and only petitioners who can’t sign can ask someone else to sign on their behalf.

I’ve already collected signatures for my petition – what do I do?

If you have a petition that you have already collected signatures for, you can send it to the Standing Committee on Petitions at the address below. It will then be checked to see if it meets the petition requirements. If it does meet the requirements, it will be presented to the House. If it does not meet requirements, it will be returned to you.

Standing Committee on Petitions

House of Representatives

PO Box 6021

Parliament House

Canberra ACT 2600