New South Wales Parliamentary Publications

• Hansard
• Votes & Proceedings / Journals
• Parliamentary Committee reports
• Parliamentary Papers
• Standing Orders & Procedure Handbooks
• Research Papers
• Fact Sheets

 

Hansard (Parliamentary Debates)

Hansard is a substantially verbatim record of the debates in Parliament. From 1831-1879, Parliamentary debates were published in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Parliament	Coverage: 1973- The ‘Hansard by bill‘ index links to all the debates relating to a particular bill, including the Second Reading speech, from September 1991 onwards. This is the easiest way to locate debates on a particular bill. Use the advanced search to run a full text search. When you select Hansard, you can choose to search either ‘1973+’ or ‘1991+’. If you choose ‘1991+’, additional fields are available to narrow your search. Browse Hansard by date from 1973 onwards. Earlier dates are listed, but these usually contain the minutes of proceedings rather than the debates. The ‘other indexes‘ page contains links to all indexes and records of NSW Legislative Proceedings which are available online. It includes scanned copies of print indexes to Hansard from 1973-2010.
GovPubs	Contains information about print holdings of Hansard and the Sydney Morning Herald in the National Library and State / Territory Libraries. Also includes information about selected indexes to the debates.
Trove: Digitised Newspapers	From 1831-1879, Parliamentary debates were published in the Sydney Morning Herald. If you have a specific reference, you can browse the Sydney Morning Herald by date. The advanced search allows you to run a full text search. You can limit your search to one or more individual newspapers, or to all newspapers in a particular state. You can also search within a specified date range.

 

Votes & Proceedings / Journals

These are the official record of proceedings in Parliament, i.e. the minutes. In the Legislative Assembly, these records are known as ‘Votes & Proceedings’ (or simply ‘Votes’). In the Legislative Council, the daily records are called the ‘Minutes of Proceedings’; at the end of each year these are bound together with other documents from the House and published as the ‘Journal of the Legislative Council’. For the transcript of proceedings in Parliament, see Hansard as described above.

Legislative Assembly House Papers	Votes & Proceedings  1991- Historical Votes & Indexes  1856-1986 For more information, see ‘Records of the House’, Chapter 8 of the NSW Legislative Assembly Practice, Procedure & Privilege handbook.
Legislative Council House Papers	Minutes of Proceedings  1824- Running Record  This is a real time record of proceedings of the Legislative Council,  updated during the course of the sitting day. Note that it is only a guide, and not an official record. The House in Review  Regular update of activities in the Legislative Council For more information, see the ‘Publication and Broadcasting of Proceedings’, Chapter 9 of the NSW Legislative Council Practice.
GovPubs	Contains information about print holdings of the different series of Votes & Proceedings and Journals in the National Library and State / Territory Libraries.

 

Parliamentary Committee reports

Committees examine issues under consideration by Parliament. They provide an opportunity for members of the public and organisations to contribute to policy debates through submissions and public hearings.

Parliament	Coverage: September 1999-  (plus key historical items back to 1991) Reports  final reports Inquiries   includes terms of reference, submissions, hearings and report. Search the full text of committee records List of current committees Register of Legislative Council committee reports and joint committee reports 1988-2011
Trove	Trove includes records of publications held in Australian libraries and available online (along with many other resources). Some Parliamentary Committee reports are catalogued individually. If a committee report is not available online, you may be able to locate a print copy in a library.

For more information on committees, including the different types of committees, please see the following resources:

• Legislative Assembly Fact Sheet 11: Parliamentary Committees
• Legislative Assembly Practice, Procedure & Privilege  (Chapter 26: Committees)
• Legislative Council Practice  (Chapter 19: Committees)

See also ‘this month in Committees’ in the ‘News & Events’ section on the NSW Parliament website.

 

Parliamentary Papers

Many papers are tabled in Parliament, including departmental reports, annual reports from government agencies and reports from Royal Commissions and other inquiries. Some of these papers are ‘ordered to be printed’ – they become part of the official ‘Parliamentary Papers’ (PP) series and are bound annually.

Legislative Assembly Tabled Papers	Coverage: December 1998- Search tabled papers Browse tabled papers  Browse all tabled papers by session; browse current session papers by committee or agency.
Legislative Council Tabled Papers	Coverage: 1995- Search tabled papers There are also various drop-down menus which allow you to browse the reports by category. Select a category from the relevant drop-down menu (Agency, Committee, Act or document type), then click Search.
GovPubs	Contains information about print holdings of NSW Parliamentary Papers in the National Library and State / Territory Libraries. Also includes information about indexes to Parliamentary Papers.
Trove	Trove includes records of publications held in Australian libraries and available online (along with many other resources). Some Parliamentary Papers are catalogued individually.

 

Standing Orders & Procedure Handbooks

Standing Orders are the rules of procedure which govern proceedings in the House. Sessional Orders are temporary rules (made for the duration of a Parliamentary session); they may vary the operation of Standing Orders or introduce new procedures. Note that Sessional Orders take precedence over Standing Orders, so you may need to refer to both.

Procedure handbooks provide comprehensive information on the operation of the House, with reference to legislation, standing orders and examples of previous rulings. They also provide general information about Parliament, office bearers, the records of the House, and Parliamentary privilege.

Legislative Assembly procedural publications

Standing Orders Sessional Orders NSW Legislative Assembly Practice, Procedure & Privilege   Handbook on procedures and practices in the House. Supplements are occasionally available on the procedural publications page. Search procedural publications  Select Legislative Assembly, then select the relevant publication or type of procedure. You can only select one House and one publication at a time, so you may need to conduct multiple searches.

Legislative Council procedural publications

Standing Orders, Sessional Orders and Resolutions NSW Legislative Council Practice  Handbook on procedures and practices in the House. Search procedural publications  Select Legislative Council, then select the relevant publication (you can only search one at a time).

 

Research Papers

“The NSW Parliamentary Research Service prepares papers for Members of the NSW Parliament on legislation before Parliament and on major issues of topical interest. The papers produced cover a broad range of subject areas, including law, politics and government, the environment, economics and social issues” (Parliament)

The publications include briefing papers, background papers and statistical indicators.

Parliamentary Research Service

Coverage: 1995-  (plus selected earlier papers) Listed in reverse chronological order. You can also browse by subject by using the drop-down menu at the top of the list.

 

Fact Sheets

These provide a brief overview of various Parliamentary functions and procedures. For more detail, refer to the Standing / Sessional Orders and the procedure handbooks noted above.

Legislative Assembly fact sheets

History of Parliament in NSW  Fact sheet 01 Sources of information (e.g Constitution, Standing Orders, Speakers rulings)  Fact sheet 04 Passage of Legislation  Fact sheet 08 Consideration in Detail – Amending Bills  Fact sheet 09 Parliamentary Committees  Fact sheet 11 Tabling of Reports and Other Papers  Fact sheet 25

 

 

Last updated: 13 June 2014