Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I have a question to you. Given that this week is National Week of Deaf People, would you be able to update the House on progress in ensuring that parliament is accessible to the deaf and hearing impaired?

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Parramatta for her question. As the member for Parramatta has just outlined to the House in her question and, indeed, in her private member's motion earlier this day, this is the National Week of Deaf People in Australia. It is fitting that I can inform the House that live captioning of proceedings of the parliament has been introduced to improve the accessibility of televised coverage of the Parliament of Australia. The service is available initially for five hours each sitting day from 12 noon until 5 pm in the House and on Monday from 1.30 to 6.30 and on Tuesday to Thursday from 2 pm until 7 pm in the Senate. These hours reflect the times in each chamber when maximum public interest is expected. Of course, the service will be progressively expanded to cover all chambers and parliamentary committees over the course of 2017, eventually providing approximately 3,000 hours of live captions per year. The closed captions are also available in Parliament House on ParlTV. It is planned that captioning will also become available on the parliament's video archive service. A working group with representatives from both house departments has been established to seek feedback from relevant stakeholders through the implementation phase of this new service. I thank the member for Parramatta.