They tend to attract the signature of   people   who subsequently abandon involvement in the issue at hand, whatever it   is,  because they feel that signing that little piece of paper equates to   “doing   their bit”.
 
  In reality, most petitions are utterly useless and totally ignored by   parliament.  Except the recent Inland Fisheries petition, that is.  This   little issue attracted thousands of signatures from across northern   Tasmania   in quick time and must have the northern MPs in the Tasmanian Government   squirming at their prospects for re-election.  Yep, that one hit home I   reckon - take a bow Jeremy Rockliff.
 
  But another petition launched prior to this Inland   Fisheries   issue appears to have disappeared into the ether,  despite   some fantabulous predictions during its launch.
 
  Daniel Leesong revealed in late January this year that a petition had   been   launched to “save” the Spirit III service to Sydney.  He seemed very   excited   about this petition at the time and peppered his announcement with   Claims   that the response to the petition had already been “fantastic” and   “overwhelmingly positive”.
 
  But the Spirit III issue has been playing out at a   parliament near Mr Leesong for a while now and we’ve yet to see that   “fantastically positive” petition.
 
  What’s happened to it?  Could it be that the response was less than “overwhelming,” despite the claims made in January?

The only person who knows   is Daniel Leesong.