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Annual Report 2007–08You are currently viewing: Annual Report Output Group 1.2 — Community awareness
DescriptionThe work of Output Group 1.2 is aimed at increasing knowledge about the House of Representatives in the community and encouraging community participation in the work of the House and its committees. The department’s Liaison and Projects Office works in cooperation with other departmental areas to provide information to the community, including the media, through a range of products and services that help inform people about the work of the House. Output Group 1.2 is also a priority area of responsibility for the Serjeant-at-Arms’ Office. The office maintains the Members Information Database, from which information about members is disseminated (including, for example, through the publication of members’ contact details on the Parliament of Australia website). The office also supports public and school visits by managing seat bookings in the galleries of the Chamber and security arrangements for the Chamber, the Main Committee and all committee rooms. Output Group 1.2 recorded an expenditure of $1.3 million for 2007–08, against a budget allocation of $1.5 million. A summary of the financial resources for the output group is set out in Table 1; staff levels, by location, are shown in Appendix 10. PerformanceThe department’s community awareness programs were suspended during the immediate lead-up to the federal election, held on 24 November 2007, and the period immediately following the election. During this time, publications were not issued, media work was not undertaken and seminars were not conducted. During the election period, the opportunity was taken to progress new projects, including coordination of celebrations for the twentieth anniversary of Parliament House and redevelopment of the House’s news page on the Parliament of Australia website. Community awareness programs recommenced with the establishment of the Forty-second Parliament. Figure 6 About the House magazine survey results, September 2007
Community liaisonPrint and electronic mediaThe About the House magazine continued as our flagship publication, with an estimated readership of more than 80,000 people across Australia. Two editions of the magazine were published, in September 2007 and June 2008. We conducted a survey of the magazine’s readership in conjunction with the September 2007 edition. More than 1,200 readers responded to the survey and gave the magazine a high approval rating (see Figure 6). The design of the magazine was refreshed for the June 2008 edition, in line with our practice of updating the look of the publication at the commencement of each new parliament. This helps to ensure that the publication remains up to date in both information and style. In addition, we added a new project page for students and teachers, to update and expand the education page that had been included in previous editions. Complementing the magazine, the About the House television program was produced in its expanded thirty-minute format and broadcast on Sky News. In addition to its usual broadcast time of 2.30 pm on the Fridays of parliamentary sitting weeks, each program was also broadcast at 1.30 pm on the second Saturday of each month. Most recently, Sky News has agreed to broadcast the program during non-sitting periods. Feedback from Sky News indicated that the program is well regarded by its viewing audience. The House’s news page on the Parliament of Australia website remained a popular source of information on the work of the House, with the ‘This Week in Parliament’ page being of particular interest to users. A project to revamp the page was progressed and is now at trial stage. The revamped page, renamed About the House, will include a range of new features, including access to video and audio material. This will enable segments of the About the House television program to be viewed via the website, giving additional public exposure to that program. The email alert service continued to be a source of regular and up-to-date information on the work of parliamentary committees. The email alert service now has more than 3,000 subscribers. Fortnightly advertisements in the Australian newspaper continued to be used as an additional vehicle to promote committee work. Monthly advertisements that had previously been placed in the Bulletin magazine ceased with the closure of that magazine. Two media advisers in the Liaison and Projects Office continued to promote committee work direct to the media. As in previous years, feedback from journalists indicated that they valued a central point of contact for accessing information about committee investigations and procedural matters concerning the House of Representatives.
The Speaker, Mr Harry Jenkins MP, the President of the Senate, Senator the Hon. Alan Ferguson, and Mr Michael Nelson Jagamara at the 20th Anniversary Open Day ceremony on 9 May 2008. Picture courtesy of Auspic Seminars and presentationsDue to the election period, fewer seminars were conducted during the year (eight seminars this year compared with thirteen in 2006–07). A review of the program resulted in some modifications to the seminars on offer for 2008 to address audience requirements better. The 2008 seminar program was issued in March, with the bulk of seminars scheduled for the second half of the year. We understand from evaluation forms completed by seminar participants that the program continues to be well received. The House Calls university lecture program continued, with the Speaker and the Clerk making presentations at Murdoch University in Western Australia in May 2008. Information about the program was sent to universities throughout Australia in June to advise that the program had recommenced. Projects and eventsThe Liaison and Projects Office played a lead role in the organisation of events to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the opening of Parliament House. The celebrations included:
Hundreds of positive comments about the Open Day and the twentieth anniversary celebrations were recorded by visitors to Parliament House in a visitors’ book available on 10 May. Parliamentary assistants programThe department continued to employ university students under the parliamentary assistants program, which has elements of employment, educational and outreach programs. (See Output 1.5 for more detail.) Public visits to the HousePublic visits to observe proceedingsWhile school children comprise the largest grouping of visitors to the galleries of the Chamber, large numbers of non-school visitors book seats in the galleries during sittings to observe question time proceedings. Other peak times for gallery attendances during the year were the opening day of the Forty-second Parliament, the debate on the Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples on the second day of the parliament, the days on which new members made their first speeches, and Budget and Budget reply nights.
Members of the public attend the Parliament House Open Day/20th Anniversary on 10 May 2008. This year, 72,984 visitors attended to view proceedings from galleries of the Chamber (compared with 80,712 in 2006–07). The reduction in total number of visitors is attributed to the long non-sitting period that resulted because of the general election. The day on which the greatest number of visitors attended in the galleries was 13 February 2008, when the House debated the Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples. The attendance was recorded at 3,473 for that day, compared with the 1,500 visitors expected on a day when no special proceedings are scheduled. School visits to Parliament HouseOrganised visits to Parliament House by school students which are booked through the Serjeant-at-Arms’ office with the Parliamentary Education Office (PEO) and the Guides service have remained relatively constant throughout the year. In 2007–08, a total of 112,460 students were recorded by the Guides’ service as having visited Parliament House, compared with 116,083 recorded in the annual report for 2006–07. The reduction of visitor numbers recorded has disclosed a difference in the reconciliation between the figures tracked by the Serjeant-at-Arms’ office booking system and the physical count by the Guides service. Efforts will be made to reconcile these figures in the future. Table 8 shows the numbers of students visiting Parliament House over the past five years, by state and territory. The largest number of students visiting Parliament House continued to be from New South Wales, possibly reflecting its closer proximity to Canberra. It is pleasing to see the growth in visitor numbers from the Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia. Of the students visiting, all participated in a tour of Parliament House, including a visit to the House of Representatives galleries; 77 per cent participated in a parliamentary education program (see below); and 82 per cent enjoyed refreshments provided by the department. Parliamentary Education OfficeThe department and the Department of the Senate jointly fund the PEO, which is administered by the Department of the Senate to provide educational programs for school students. The department oversees the strategic direction of the PEO and advises on the content of its educational material and online resources. The Deputy Speaker chairs the PEO Advisory Committee that was established by the presiding officers to advise on matters relating to parliamentary education and the PEO. The first meeting for the Forty-second Parliament was held in June 2008. The Clerk Assistant (Table) attends meetings as an observer. A record number of 89,061 young Australians from every state and territory participated in the PEO’s role-play program during the year (compared with 87,027 in 2006–07). For those who cannot attend and participate in the role-play, the PEO invests substantially in outreach strategies, including the PEO website and targeted visit programs, as well as the development and distribution of educational materials (in print and on CDs and DVDs) throughout Australia. Improving performanceThe look of the About the House magazine has been refreshed, to ensure it remains up to date. The House’s news page is being revamped. Its launch in the second half of 2008 will give the community access to a broader range of multimedia material on the work of the House of Representatives and its committees. The seminar program has been reviewed and adjusted to ensure it continues to meet the needs of its target audience. OutlookWe will work on building our audience for the public information products we produce, particularly the About the House magazine and the email alert service. We will launch and market the revamped About the House web page to give the community, including the media, access to a broader range of material on the work of the House of Representatives and its committees.
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Output Group 1.2
