Trish Draper (Makin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Committee on Publications, I present the committee’s report entitled Distribution of the parliamentary papers series, together with the minutes of proceedings and evidence received by the committee.

Ordered that the report be made a parliamentary paper.

As chair of the committee it gives me great pleasure to present to the parliament the Joint Committee on Publications report titled Distribution of the parliamentary papers series, May 2006, to give a brief overview of the committee’s work over the past year and to outline to the House several key recommendations of the 23 recommendations in the body of the report.

I would like to acknowledge my parliamentary colleagues and other members of the committee, the chair of the Senate committee Senator John Watson, and deputy chair of the House of Representatives committee, the honourable member for Lyons, and honourable members for Braddon, Isaacs, Werriwa, Riverina and Ryan, as well as Senators Johnston, Marshall, Nash, Polley, Sterle and Wortley for their worthy contributions and efforts in compiling this important report. Also, I would like to acknowledge the Secretary of the House of Representatives Committee, Mr Jason Sherd, the Secretary of the Senate Publications Committee, Ms Jan Chapman, and the documents manager, Ms Vicki Bradley, for their hard work, professionalism and patience and recognise their support and involvement throughout the committee process. I would also like to acknowledge and thank former committee members, the members for Paterson and Chifley and Senators Kirk, Moore and Scullion.

The terms of reference were to inquire and report on the distribution of the parliamentary papers series, with particular reference to the potential impact of changes to the distribution of the PPS made by the Presiding Officers, mainly the tightening of the eligibility guidelines and the cessation of blister packs to commence on 1 January 2006; the provision of the PPS in a digital format, either as an alternative or an adjunct to the hard copy series; the feasibility of a subscription service, either in digital or hard copy form; and the possibility of partial or full cost recovery for the series.

Mr Speaker, as you are aware, many documents are presented to the parliament each year; some are required to be presented by law, others may just be presented for the general information of members. These documents include the annual reports of all government agencies, reports of royal commissions and other government inquiries, parliamentary committee reports and a wide variety of other material. Whilst these documents assist with good and accountable governance, only documents of a substantial nature are included in the parliamentary papers series.

Those documents not already ordered to be included in the PPS by the parliament are later considered by the publications committees, which have the role of making a recommendation to the parliament for their inclusion in the PPS. Mr Speaker, as you are aware, the PPS is then distributed to organisations such as state, publicly funded university or parliamentary libraries and is available throughout Australia for use by students, researchers and other sections of the public. It is fair to say that the PPS plays a major role in the governance practices of all government agencies and the parliament and is integral to an open and democratic system of government such as ours. But, most importantly, the PPS provides a historic record for future generations.

The Publications Committee has existed since 1970 and since its inception has only specifically reported on the parliamentary papers series four times—the last time being in 1997. The committee in 2006 has recommended that the eligibility criteria be broadened to include Commonwealth departmental libraries and that all recipients of the PPS are regularly monitored to ascertain their wish to continue receiving parliamentary papers.

The committee has recognised the popularity of electronic copies and the benefits this provides for accessibility; thus, the committee recommends the Australian Government Information Management Office continue to ensure that all government documents are permanently available online and that where possible any digital versions augment the hard copy PPS. Whilst the committee acknowledges the advances in technology and its availability, it was not comfortable recommending it as a replacement of the hard copy series due to the inconclusive evidence of the reliability of digital copies and the concerns arising from this record-keeping format.

The committee has also recommended that historic documents should be made available online and has requested the Department of the House of Representatives investigate the digital imaging of House committee reports from 1901 to 1996 to complement the Department of the Senate’s digital imaging project. I commend this report to the House. (Time expired)

Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Makin has touched on the role of the Publications Committee and the main thrust of the recommendations. Mr Speaker, as you will see from the contents of the report, Distribution of the parliamentary papers series, this committee has played a very important role in reviewing the process by which information can be relayed to the community at large, allowing everybody an opportunity to have access to the parliamentary process. The need for the report is because of tightening of the distribution of the parliamentary papers series. Mr Speaker, you would be aware of that. There was a false expectation that the parliamentary papers series need be available only in a digital rather than in a hard copy format, thinking that it would allow access to the papers just as easily, and therefore we could reduce costs by reducing hard copies.

This is certainly a simplistic view and too premature. It is important that the general public have access to these papers, so there needs to be a structure whereby papers can be put together in a less unstructured way. The cost of the retention of hard copies is usually small and there is not enough depth in the process with the digital electronic format. The important point is that those who receive the hard copies are usually the ones who set up the access for electronic copies. The committee found from a departmental website that, as soon as this year’s report goes on, last year’s report comes off in most areas, thereby removing the link. So there is a need for national, state and parliamentary libraries to have an ongoing point of reference. There also needs to be more links and the ability to keep some continuity in the papers so that people can find the papers in the system.

Recommendation 1 deals with Commonwealth departmental libraries not receiving hard copies and therefore not keeping a full series of papers. There is no doubt that there needs to be work done on departments that get their information together two years late. We received evidence that one department was up to three years late on one occasion. We need to make sure that those agencies receive a little bit more attention.

Recommendations 12 and 14 deal with the issue of some documents which just do not turn up—usually the controversial ones—and therefore are not available to the public. It is thought that there is a need to ensure they are available and in a timely fashion. Recommendation 16 shows the importance of having website links from each agency so that all documents that are presented to parliament are available as public documents. The committee became aware of the need to develop an online digital repository for the parliamentary papers series, with someone in charge to monitor and catalogue all papers that are in the system and make them available within a reasonable time period. This is reflected in recommendation 19.

With cost always a consideration for good governance, recommendation 20 of the committee looks at the Senate’s digital imaging project and asks the House of Representatives to investigate similar digital imaging of all documents, going back to all of the House’s committee reports which have been presented from 1901 up to 1996, to make sure that they are available online. This is a large part of the Australian historical democratic process of the parliament at work which the public needs to have easy access to, using our modern technology. How can young people engage with the parliamentary process without having the links available to look at these documents? I think it is very necessary for these things to occur.

I thank the chair and other members of the committee who have served with us, and particularly thank Jason Sherd and his assistants for putting all this together. I hope the Presiding Officers and our good clerks will give this report the consideration that it needs. It is a very important report and I look forward to speedy consideration of it.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for statements on this report has expired. Does the member for Makin wish to move a motion in connection with the report to enable it to be debated on a later occasion?

I move:

That the House take note of the report.

In accordance with sessional order 39, the debate is adjourned. The resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for a later hour this day. Does the member for Makin wish to move a motion to refer the matter to the Main Committee?