Petitions FAQ

Any resident of Victoria can sign a petition. This includes people under 18 years of age.  

No, unless that person is incapable of signing for themselves. Then, you may sign on their behalf only if you have that person’s consent.  

Yes.

No.

Only Victorian residential addresses can be accepted for an e-petition. PO Box addresses are not accepted.

If the website is not able to correctly identify your address, please troubleshoot by:

• updating your browser to the latest version
• ensuring your browser location settings are enabled
• entering your address as it appears in Google Maps for example: Street Number, Street Name, Suburb, State.

Any resident of Victoria can start a petition. This includes people under 18 years of age.  

Yes.  

For paper petitions, please attach a certified English translation.  

To start a Legislative Council e-petition in a language other than English, email epetitions.council@parliament.vic.gov.au or call (03) 9651 8678. 

We can only accept Victorian autocompleted addresses. PO Box addresses cannot be accepted. 

If the website is not able to correctly identify your address, please try the following:

• update your browser to the latest version
• ensure your browser location settings are enabled
• enter your address as it appears in Google Maps, for example: Street Number, Street Name, Suburb, State. 

The Clerks or their offices review e-petitions to ensure they comply with Standing and Sessional Orders, which are the rules of the Legislative Council.

Once approved, the e-petition will go live on the website and you will be notified via email.

Yes.

In the Council, they will be treated as the same petition and the signatures will be tallied together if they are tabled on the same day by a member. 

Yes.

No. It is your responsibility to raise awareness about your petition and collect signatures. 

A petition must have at least one signature. 

No. The Council can only accept e-petitions started on the Parliament of Victoria website. Signatures collected from other websites such as Change.org cannot be accepted.

Your e-petition can no longer be signed after it is closed. However, it can be viewed on the Parliament website.  

For the Council, a sponsored e-petition can be viewed on the Parliament website until the Parliament dissolves and a general election is held. However, if an e-petition closes without being sponsored by a member, it will remain on the Parliament website for only 12 months after closing. After that, we will remove all record of the e-petition, including personal information. We will not retain this information.

In the Council, the person who started the petition can apply to change the closing date. The request must be made by emailing epetitions.council@parliament.vic.gov.au. 

After closing, your petition will be tabled. This means that your petition:  

• is officially recorded by the Parliament 
• becomes part of the public record, including the details of everyone who has signed.

A copy of your petition will be sent to the relevant minister.  

For the Council, yes. Once your petition is tabled, the signature count will be recorded, and a new count started for the new signatories to your petition. Your petition will need to be closed to signatures for a period before it is tabled, while Council staff prepare it for the house. This is called progressive publishing. Contact us on epetitions.council@parliament.vic.gov.au or (03) 9651 8678 for more information. 

For the  Assembly, no. A petition closes once it is tabled. You may start a new petition with the same wording and actions. 

There are no more sitting days scheduled for the current Parliament. This means all Legislative Assembly e-petitions are now closed. Legislative Council e-petitions may continue throughout the election period.