Victorian Second Reading Speeches

The Second Reading speech is given by the Minister or Member who is introducing the bill. It outlines the purpose of the bill and is recorded in Hansard (Parliamentary debates). The Second Reading speech may be used in statutory interpretation – see the Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984 (Vic) s35.

Sources of Victorian Second Reading speeches

Parliament
  • Coverage: 1991- (full text search) 1856-1999 (browse by volume)
  • For 1991 onwards, use the advanced search. Type the title of the bill in the ‘debate text’ field and select ‘Second Reading’ from the ‘Activity’ drop down menu, then click ‘Search’. You can also limit by date or House of Parliament.
  • For 1856-1990, you can only download pdf versions of individual volumes of Hansard, i.e. there is no way to search across the volumes. Download the volume for the relevant time period, then use the index (usually at the end of the volume) to locate the Second Reading speech. Alternatively you can search the full text of the volume  using the ‘find in page’ feature –
Victorian Legislation & Parliamentary Documents
  • Coverage: 2004-  (linked to the bill)
  • Click on the relevant session (some years are divided into ‘Spring’ and ‘Autumn’), then click on the word ‘Bill’. All of the bills for that session will be displayed alphabetically. Click on the bill title to access the record for the bill, which includes a link to the Second Reading speech.
Lawlex
  • Coverage: 1991-  (incomplete for earlier years)
  • Second Reading Speeches are linked to the record for both the Act and the bill. Note that the free version of Lawlex only provides access to current bills (a deeper archive is available to subscribers).
  • Type in the name of the Act or bill in the ‘keywords’ field and the year in the ‘year from’ field. Set the jurisdiction to ‘VIC’, then click search.
  • On the home page for the Act or bill, click on ‘Hansard – 2nd Reading Speech’ in the ‘related links’ section if available.
GovPubs
  • Contains information about print holdings of Hansard in the National Library and State / Territory Libraries.

 

Information about Victorian Hansard & Second Reading speeches

Parliament: Hansard
  • About Hansard  history of Hansard
  • Hansard FAQ  search tips (e.g. How do I search for Members with the same surname; How do I find if a report has been tabled in Parliament), how to cite Hansard etc
Victorian government publications guide: Hansard
  • Overview of Hansard, information about early years of the colony (Port Phillip), links to online Hansard, details of print Hansard held at the State Library, details of indexes to Hansard.
  • Provided by the State Library of Victoria
Victorian Legislation Research Guide: Hansard
  • Overview of Hansard, plus tips for locating Hansard online.
  • Provided by the University of Melbourne.

 

Related pages

See also Bills and Explanatory Memoranda.

 

Last updated: 4 March 2014