CHAIR (Mrs Irwin) —I welcome all witnesses and members of the public to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Petitions hearing into selected petitions. Under the rules of the House of Representatives, the petitions committee is required to consider if petitions comply with those rules. If so, the petition may then be presented to the House and the committee may refer it to the relevant government minister for a response. We may also hold public hearings into petitions, allowing both principal petitioners and government agencies to consider further the concerns raised in petitions and the response made. Today, we are hearing from principal petitioners or their representatives.

I will briefly outline the procedures that the committee will follow today. I will invite witnesses to come to the table in turn to answer our questions individually or as representatives of an organisation. I will invite witnesses to make a brief opening statement up to five minutes if they wish. I ask witnesses to keep to that time limit so that discussion can be two-way and so that we can keep to the program. As you can see, the committee’s proceedings are being recorded by Hansard, and Naomi is here from our secretariat staff in Canberra.

[9.33 am]