E-Petitions

Under Standing Orders an E-Petition is described as a petition:

(a)  in the correct form, stating a grievance and containing a request for action by the House;
(b)  sponsored by a Member of Parliament and lodged with the Clerk for publication on the Parliament’s Internet web site for a nominated period (“posted period”);

Persons may elect to indicate their support of the Petition (“join the petition”) by electronically providing their name, address (including postcode), and email address and signifying their intention to join the petition. By clicking on Request Form you can access a form for requesting a Member of Parliament to sponsor a proposed E-Petition.

The Member of Parliament sponsoring the E-Petition must provide the Clerk with the details of the petition in the correct form, the posted period and a signed acknowledgment that they are prepared to sponsor the E-Petition.  Once published on the Parliament’s Internet web site an E-Petition cannot be altered.

Only one E-Petition dealing with substantially the same grievance and requesting substantially the same action by the House shall be published on the Parliament’s Internet web site at the same time.

The posted period for an E-Petition is to be a minimum of one week and a maximum of six months from the date of publication on the Parliament’s Internet web site. Once the posted period for an E-Petition has elapsed, a paper copy of the petition is printed by the Clerk in full (including the names, addresses and email addresses of the persons who joined the petition).  The hard copy of the E-Petition is then presented to the House in the name of the Member of Parliament who sponsored the E-Petition.

An E-Petition published on the Parliament’s Internet web site, but not presented to the House prior to the dissolution of the Parliament is presented to the subsequent Parliament and becomes a petition of the subsequent Parliament. An E-Petition cannot be sponsored after the dissolution of the Parliament.