NATIONAL ARCHIVES CLOSURES - PETITION UPDATE

Dear colleagues,

I am now holding petitions received mostly by ordinary post with 400 signatures. This is a splendid effort, so thank you everybody.

The last date for sending in completed/signed petitions by normal mail is Friday 22 January 2010.

This will enable Baiba Berzins and me to set them in order, copy them (so we have a set) and forward them to Canberra to the Secretary of the House of Representatives petitions Committee by 29 January 2010 so our petition may be considered by the MHR Standing Committee for Petitions at its first meeting on Monday 8 February. It is possible that the Chair of the Petitions Committee, Ms Julia Irwin, will table the petition in the House on the next day.

Now I know there are a lot more petitions out there. If you are holding completed sheets, please send them tomorrow, or no later than first post on Wednesday this week because the University of Sydney shuts on Friday 18 December and will not open until Monday 4 January 2010. I would prefer that the petitions were not sitting in the post office over such a long period. My email will still be active so you can contact me by email if you have any queries during the break.

Yes you can send them to me after 4 January but long experience with petitioning tells me that completed sheets or partially completed sheets sit around and get buried and then missed when there is a flurry at the end to get them in. And it doesn't matter if the sheets are not filled up. Every signature is counted, and the many places they come from impresses the politicians.

I will send out reminders in January to people, so don't worry.

Now the Petitions Committee has a protocol whereby the tabled petition is forwarded to the relevant minister who must make a response to the House within 90 days. If the Petitions Committee is not satisfied with the answer the matter can go to an inquiry which Petitions Committee presides over. Sometimes the petitioners are asked to attend the hearings and present evidence. So maybe...

The standing Parliamentary hearings which we shall pursue are the Senates estimates hearings in May associated with the 2010 Budget. We'll keep everyone posted.

And then there are state elections in the New Year where we want to make this an issue - it is above all about states' rights!

The effort has been wide-spread and diverse. I am impressed and heartened. Keep up the effort over the holiday break and keep the signatures rolling in.

All the best,

Anne Picot
Mob. 0404 090 710

Stop the Closures!

14 December 2009