Petition FAQs

Requests to have a petition withdrawn can be made by the lead petitioner and must be made in writing.

Yes, however people can only sign either the ePetition or the paper petition - not both. The paper petition and ePetition are also required to be submitted at the same time to be counted as one.

Business addresses can only be accepted if you are the ratepayer/owner of that property. 

No. Once the petition has been submitted the closing date cannot be extended. 

Yes.

No, as the City requires a single point of contact for the Petition.

A petition can only be presented to Council at an Ordinary Council Meeting by the Mayor, the Chief Executive Officer, or a Councillor. This can be any City of Stirling Councillor, and does not have to be a Councillor from a particular ward.

For hard copy petitions, the person initiating the petition must forward it to the Chief Executive Officer or a Councillor prior to the commencement of the Ordinary Council Meeting at which they would like the petition presented. Although the Councillor is not bound to present a petition, it is traditionally accepted that he or she will present it, irrespective of personal views. Presentation of a petition by a Councillor does not mean that he or she necessarily agrees or disagrees with the intent of the petition.

ePetitions are submitted online via our online facility and will follow the same process outlined above.

Every petition presented will be referred to the Business Unit responsible for the matter which is the subject of the petition. An assigned staff member from that Business Unit will inform the petition initiator of the action proposed in dealing with the petition. This may involve having to prepare a detailed report for consideration during a future Council meeting.

One of the first items of business at a Council meeting is to receive any petitions that has been presented. The Chief Executive Officer or Councillor presenting the petition will read out a summary of the reasons for the petition being submitted and the amount of signatures within it.

When the petition is received, no discussion on the matter will take place, however the petition will be referred to the responsible Business Unit within the City for appropriate action.

For more information on Council meetings, visit the Council meetings page.

Petitions inform the Council, in a public way, of the views of sections of the community and they serve as a way of placing community concerns before Council. 

Any elector of the City of Stirling, or group of electors, may petition the Council to take some form of action over a particular issue. For example, petitions may ask the Council to change an existing Policy, Local Law or recent decision, or for the Council to take action for a certain purpose or for the benefit of particular persons.

It is important to note that the subject of a petition must be a matter on which the Council has the power to act.

Care must be taken in the wording of petitions as the City requires certain information and content.

Although a petition only needs to have two electors' signatures to be accepted, it will appear more representative of public feeling if it is signed by as many people as possible. Although anyone can sign a petition, only those who are City of Stirling electors will be recorded in the official signature count.

All the signatures on a petition must meet the following requirements:

• For hard copy petitions, every signature must be written on a page bearing the terms of the petition, or the action requested by the petition (see the Petition Information and Submission Form). Please note that signatures are gathered electronically for ePetitions
• Signatures must not be copied, pasted or transferred on to the petition nor should they be placed on a blank page on the reverse of a sheet containing terms of the petition
• Each signature must be made by the person signing in his or her own handwriting.