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Annual Report 2001–02 You are currently viewing: Annual
report > Performance Review
> Output Group 1 > Output 1.1 Output Group 1: Chamber and Main Committee1.1 Procedural advice and support services
AdviceAdvice on the procedures and practices of the House provided by the Clerk, Deputy Clerk and other staff members helped to ensure the proper functioning of the Chamber and Main Committee. As in previous years, the clerks were called on throughout the year to provide the Speaker and members with advice on the application of the law and rules under which the House operates as well as assistance in the preparation of legislation and legislative amendments. Advice was also provided on issues ranging from the constitutional powers of the House in respect of legislation, through issues of members interests, to the law and practice of parliamentary privilege. Feedback from the Speaker and members indicated their high level of satisfaction with these services. In addition, ongoing procedural advice and support were given to all those involved in supporting the operations of the House of Representatives, including staff in the offices of ministers, shadow ministers and whips, and the Parliamentary Liaison Officer of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Further, the following small sample of the topics on which advice was provided by the Chamber Research Office illustrates the range of subjects dealt with by that office.
Support for the Clerks-at-the-Table continued to be enhanced through the greater use of email to convey advice to Chamber and/or Main Committee clerks laptops, and by ensuring that those laptops had live access to the Votes Managers minutes service throughout the sittings. In line with previous innovations in regard to technology in the Chamber, the Table Office established a small working group to review the captioning system currently available on the internal broadcasting system, with a view to improving the quality of information conveyed to members and other building occupants. The working group is to report in September 2002.
Document provisionAs in previous years, during each sitting of the Chamber and Main Committee, House documents such as the Notice Paper, the Daily Program, the Votes and Proceedings, the Daily Bills List and the Disallowable Instruments List and procedures and associated material for the use of ministers and members in proceedings were produced and delivered to users, as appropriate, in hard copy, on the web and in electronic form in a very timely fashion (for example, within an hour of the rising of the House when the House was to sit the next day, or prior either to the commencement of the days sittings or to consideration of the particular item of business). During each sitting of the Chamber in which bills were introduced, the text of each bill, together with its explanatory memorandum (when available), was made accessible through the departments electronic bills service BillsNet while the bills proponent was making his or her second reading speech in the Chamber. At the same time, hard copies of those documents were made available to members and their staff upon request at the Table Office inquiry counter. Following each sitting, the minutes of the House, the Votes and Proceedings, were prepared and made available in proof format on the internet usually within an hour of the rising of the House, and in hard copy the following morning. The provision of documents was reviewed again this year and, from the start of the Fortieth Parliament, members and other users were strongly encouraged to access some categories of documents in electronic form only. A significant step in this direction saw the Notice Paper no longer being printed and distributed in hard copy to all members Parliament House rooms or placed on each members Chamber desk. Instead, copies were made available electronically usually one hour after the rising of the House, when the House was to sit the next day. Any member who required a hard copy of the Notice Paper was able to obtain one from stocks held on the Chamber Table, at the whips offices or at the Table Office. Changes in the content and format of that document also led to significant savings, as Figure 6 shows. Some dissatisfaction was expressed initially with the changes to Notice Paper distribution, but that was addressed and clients have since acknowledged the merits of the new arrangements.
The success of the outputs strategy of encouraging users to access documents electronically was reflected in strong growth during 200102 in web access statistics for House of Representatives Chamber related documents. The evolution of House procedures continued apace during the year: for example, the development of single-folio messages from the Governor-General for the major appropriation bills led to an improvement in the parliamentary and executive administrative processes underpinning Chamber proceedings on Budget day. Previously, the messages from the Governor-General for appropriation bills listed full details of all line appropriations and were complex to assemble, print and manage. This years transition to a one-page message style mirrored the approach taken with all other bills requiring Governor-Generals messages. The department made significant input to legal advice supporting this single-folio approach.
Chamber practiceThe fourth edition of House of Representatives Practice, on parliamentary practice, procedure and law in Australia, was published early in the reporting period. It is available as a hard copy publication as well as electronically through the internet. The publication is the Houses authority on practice and procedure and is consulted daily during proceedings. The response to the publication was very positive, with particular satisfaction expressed about the comprehensiveness of the coverage of issues, the clarity of the layout and the usefulness of the index. Existing guidelines for filming and taking photographs in the Chamber were reviewed during the year by the Serjeant-at-Arms and a comprehensive new set of guidelines was compiled, approved by the Speaker, and provided to members of the press gallery.
Parliamentary committeesThis output provided secretariat support to the Selection Committee, the Standing Committee on Publications, the Standing Committee on Procedure, the Committee of Privileges, the Committee of Members Interests and the Joint Committee on the Broadcasting of Parliamentary Proceedings. The Committee of Privileges is appointed at the commencement of each Parliament to inquire into and report on complaints of breach of privilege referred to it by the House. It also makes recommendations concerning applications for a right of reply requested by aggrieved citizens mentioned in proceedings. In the reporting year, in the Thirty-ninth Parliament, the committee conducted an inquiry into the alleged threatening or intimidation of a potential witness in connection with an inquiry by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Community Affairs. The report was presented on 26 September 2001. No matters were referred to the Committee of Privileges in the Fortieth Parliament during 200102. In August 2001 the Standing Committee on Procedure completed its inquiry into the ceremonial opening of Parliament, and presented its report Balancing tradition and progress: Procedures for the opening of Parliament. None of the committees recommendations for change was implemented at the opening of the Fortieth Parliament, which proceeded in the traditional manner. The committee was re-established in the Fortieth Parliament and has commenced an inquiry into opportunities for scrutinising budget estimates. Details of other committee activity are provided in Appendices 3 and 4. The department received positive feedback on the outputs secretariat services particularly on the timeliness and quality of briefing papers and technical advice provided by staff.
Procedural trainingOpportunities were offered to staff whose main duties were not in the procedural support area to serve as Clerks-at-the-Table in both the Chamber and the Main Committee, thereby increasing the number of qualified people. In addition, back-up capacity for certain key Table Office duties was obtained through shadowing, that is, staff who were otherwise not directly contributing to this output group worked on sitting nights to assist the staff performing those duties. The procedural competence of all staff involved in procedural work was maintained and developed by specialised internal briefing sessions on particular procedural issues and by weekly or fortnightly debriefing meetings following sittings to discuss procedural issues that arose during the sittings. Parliamentary assistants were introduced to the department in 2001, as part of a pilot project, to introduce the work of the House of Representatives to a small group of university students working in a part-time capacity. The project was based partly on the page programs which have long been in operation in the national parliament and some provincial legislatures of Canada. The project was considered very successful and it was decided that a new intake of students would be appointed at the beginning of each academic year to serve for that year. Seven parliamentary assistants were appointed in 2002. In sitting weeks their main task was to work as messengers in the Chamber. They also assisted with other messengerial tasks, undertook research tasks, assisted parliamentary committees and assisted with work in the Serjeant-at-Arms Office. At the national level, the development of specialist training for parliamentary staff is being explored by the Education Sub-Committee of the Australia and New Zealand Association of Clerks-at-the-Table. The Clerk Assistant (Table) is a member of the education sub-committee. You are currently viewing: Annual
report > Performance Review
> Output Group 1 > Output 1.1
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