About petitions
Petitions allow the community to bring matters of concern to Brisbane City Council's attention. Council can be petitioned for any matter that comes under its jurisdiction.
What is a petition
Petitions can be written or electronic. Council considers a document to be a petition when it:
- makes a request of Council, or expresses an objection or viewpoint
- is signed by three or more persons
- contains the names and residential addresses (e.g. house number, street name, suburb, etc.) of the individual signatories.
Process
Petitions submitted to Council are to be processed in accordance with an established procedure and timeframes. The process includes:
- A petition is created by a head petitioner and supporting signatories are obtained.
- Petitions can be forwarded to Council, or to the Lord Mayor.
- After the petition is forwarded to Council, the Lord Mayor or the nominated Ward Councillor presents the petition to the next Council meeting.
- Petition details are included in Council minutes and an acknowledgement letter is sent to the head petitioner only.
- The relevant work area investigates the petitioners' request and prepares a recommendation submission for Council. This is usually completed within six weeks.
- After investigation, the petition is submitted with recommendations to the appropriate committee, which submits its recommendation in a report to Council in accordance with its delegation.
- Council considers the recommendations and reaches a decision.
- The decision is minuted and the head petitioner is notified of the outcome, and they are requested to advise the other petitioners.
- The petition file is forwarded back to the relevant work area to note or action Council's decision.