Department of Parliamentary Services Annual Report 2018–19

DPS on a page

Role

The Department of Parliamentary Services (DPS) is one of four parliamentary departments which together comprise the Australian Parliamentary Service, which is independent of the Executive Government of the Commonwealth. DPS supports the functions of the Australian Parliament and the work of parliamentarians through the provision of professional services, advice and facilities, the ongoing maintenance of Australian Parliament House and makes the building, and the important activity that takes place within it, accessible.

Activities

In 2018–19, DPS undertook many activities to support the Australian Parliament:

  • Welcomed 746,844 visitors through the main entrance.
  • Screened more than 9,500 people entering Parliament House on Budget Day 2019.
  • Sold 283,941 coffees.
  • Conducted 7,404 tours for 216,778 participants, including school groups.
  • More than 3,543 square metres of carpet were replaced and 73,811 square metres of painting was undertaken.
  • The building maintenance help desk responded to 4,852 calls for assistance.
  • The Parliament House flag was changed 11 times.
  • Significant security capital works upgrades were delivered to improve the physical security of Parliament House.
  • The Management of Design Integrity Framework (comprising consultation framework, policy and process documents) was published to ensure effective management of projects for change at Parliament House.
  • All live video streams of parliamentary proceedings were captioned on the Parliament of Australia website, to improve accessibility.
  • The ICT support desk responded to 52,445 contacts, comprising 41,562 phone calls and 10,883 emails, self-service requests and walk-ins.
  • Installed or updated 2,751 PCs, laptops, mobile devices, multi-function devices and printers across Parliament House, electorate offices and Commonwealth Parliament Offices.
  • Increased public engagement with the increase of personalised ‘My Parliament’ accounts up by 22 per cent.
  • An electronic voting application was designed and implemented to provide an electronic solution for recording division voting on the floor of the House of Representatives and enabling real-time publishing of division results.
  • An offsite data centre was commissioned, significantly enhancing the resilience of core parliamentary IT services.