John Watson (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Committee on Publications I present the report of the committee entitled Distribution of the parliamentary papers series together with the Hansard of the proceedings, minutes of the proceedings and submissions received by the committee. I seek leave to move a motion in relation to the report.

Leave granted.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

The parliamentary papers series does not contain all the documents presented to the parliament. However, the significant documents that comprise the series provide vital information on the activities of government and the parliament since Federation. While electronic distribution may provide the greatest opportunities for widening the access to the series, long-term viability of these documents is not yet assured. A framework is therefore required to ensure the series is permanently available in both hard copy and electronic form for the widest possible audience.

I remind the Senate that the committee feels that the 23 recommendations contained in this report provide a foundation from which the parliamentary papers series can continue to be available to the widest possible audience. I will add background to our inquiry and report. I remind the Senate that this parliamentary papers series, the PPS, has been in existence since 1901—since Federation. Documents of a substantial nature presented to the parliament are included in the series by a resolution of either house of parliament, usually on the recommendation of the publications committee. In an average year, 430 documents out of 800 presented to the parliament are selected in the series.

Recipients of the series include national, state, parliamentary and university libraries. On 12 May 2005 the Presiding Officers wrote to the committee, informing of changes to the distribution of the parliamentary papers series to take effect from 1 January 2006 and seeking advice on further, more extensive changes to the series. The committee received 20 submissions and held hearings in Canberra on 31 October and 28 November 2005. On 6 February 2006 the members of the joint committee conducted inspections and received briefings from the National Library of Australia, the PANDORA web archive project and CanPrint Communications, parliament’s distributor of the series, regarding the processing of the documents which comprise the series. I commend the report to the Senate.

Question agreed to.