Lifecycle of Parliamentary Documents: Australia
- Bills and related information, including explanatory memoranda and bills digests.[1]
- Petitions.[2]
- Tabled papers, i.e, papers presented to the Parliament, including "reports from parliamentary committees, annual reports of departments and agencies, reports from the Auditor-General and legislative instruments.")[3] Parliamentary Papers are a subset of such tabled papers.[4]
- Hansard, i.e., the report of proceedings of the Parliament and its committees.[5]
- Audio and audiovisual recordings of proceedings.
- Chamber documents, i.e., documents used to facilitate the business of the two houses, including the agenda for each sitting day ("Senate Order of Business" and "House of Representatives Daily Program"), the business currently before each chamber (Notice Papers), and the minutes of meetings for each sitting day ("Journals of the Senate" and "Votes and Proceedings for the House of Representatives").[6]
- Parliamentary Library research publications.[7]
B. Legal Framework
1. Relevant Legislation
The production, publication, and preservation of parliamentary documents may be governed by different legislation, depending on the document type and the context. This includes the
- ↑ Bills and Legislation, Parliament of Australia, https://perma.cc/ DH3R-GT2N.
- ↑ Petitions, Parliament of Australia, https://perma.cc/ NQ7M-HN26.
- ↑ Tabled Papers, Parliament of Australia, https://perma.cc/HLSH-M8LQ.
- ↑ Parliamentary Papers Series, Parliament of Australia, https://perma.cc/22T2-8VDH; National Archives of Australia (NAA), Parliamentary Papers (Fact Sheet 21), https://perma.cc/ADU242HT.
- ↑ Hansard, Parliament of Australia, https:/ / perma.cc/3CNL-RWB5. The “Hansard Mission Statement” reads as follows:
To provide an accurate, substantially verbatim account of the proceedings of the parliament and its committees which, while usually correcting obvious mistakes, neither adds to nor detracts from the meaning of the speech or the illustration of the argument.
For chambers: A rendition which is accurate and readable, with minimal alterations being made only to clarify ambiguous or confusing passages and to ensure that the meaning is understandable and the argument coherent. Politically sensitive subjects require a more strictly verbatim approach.
For committees: An accurate, basically verbatim rendition. Witnesses should, by and large, be given their exact words, even though these are sometimes confusing and not always strictly grammatical Editing should be kept to a minimum and used only in circumstances where it is deemed absolutely necessary and can be justified as such.
- ↑ Chamber Documents, Parliament of Australia, https://perma.cc/S85R-NZJP.
- ↑ Parliamentary Library, Parliament of Australia, https://perma.cc/ 8LK6-XD6Q.
