The community relations and awareness component aims to demonstrate the value of the department’s work by promoting its activities, engaging the community with key issues, and educating the public in the work and procedure of the House and its committees.

In 2014–15, the budget allocation for the component was $1.211 million and expenditure was $0.893 million. Progress against the deliverable and key performance indicator for the component is summarised in Appendix 1. Staff levels, by location, are shown in Appendix 2.

Performance summary

In 2014–15, the department continued to promote the work of the House and its committees by developing engaging programs, activities and media, in accordance with its Community Outreach Strategy 2013–16.

The department met its target of 20,000 Twitter followers by December 2014, and received consistently positive feedback from participants in its face-to-face seminars. We contributed to the education of school-aged children by supporting the Parliamentary Education Office and school tours of Parliament House. We continued to engage younger audiences through the Speaker’s University Challenge and My First Speech competitions, and to raise awareness of the work of the House and parliament through various internship and exchange programs.

Electronic media

The department continued to engage with the community through social media platforms. The department’s Twitter handle, @AboutTheHouse, achieved sustained growth and recently reached 30,000 followers. Given its real-time nature, the platform continues to be a useful tool to engage with the public and the media. The department’s Facebook following doubled in 2014–15 and the platform is proving to be a valuable tool for publishing longer articles about the work of the House and its committees.

The About the House YouTube channel, which broadcasts committee inquiry information and highlights from House, more than doubled its subscription in 2014. These videos were viewed more than 130,000 times on either YouTube or the Parliament of Australia website. We also continued to produce the successful Parliament Diary series, which has been broadcast on Sky News and the Australian Public Affairs Channel early on House sitting days.

The department’s About the House magazine became a digital publication in 2015 after 17 years in print form. This transition will allow the magazine to reach new online audiences through the department’s website, social media platforms and mobile application.

Seminars

The department continued to use its seminar program to raise awareness of its work, particularly among staff in government departments. Nine seminars were held in 2014–15, more than double the number of the previous year, attracting 325 participants. Formal evaluation of the seminar program continues to garner positive feedback.

Competitions

The department continued to engage with younger audiences through two competitions—the Speaker’s University Challenge and My First Speech.

Speaker’s University Challenge

The Speaker’s University Challenge aims to raise awareness of the House among young Australians by encouraging students to voice their opinions on a topic chosen by the Speaker. In the 2014 competition, entrants were challenged to create a three-minute video exploring the topic ‘Freedom of speech in a modern-day democracy’. The videos were judged based on the quality of the arguments and ideas presented, the use of research and their overall structure.

The competition was won by Patrisha Kay, who is studying for a Bachelor of Laws/Commerce at Griffith University. Ms Kay met the Speaker, the Hon Bronwyn Bishop MP, and the Speaker of the UK House of Commons, the Rt Hon John Bercow MP, at Parliament House when she received her trophy.

My First Speech

The My First Speech competition provides upper high school students with an opportunity to submit the speech that they would give as a newly elected member of the House of Representatives.

Rockhampton High School student Chay Conaglen took out first prize in the 2014 competition. In his speech, Chay spoke passionately about Australia’s democracy, climate change and the country’s relationships with international powerhouses China and India. He presented his speech live to the Speaker and numerous members at Parliament House in December.

Prime Minister the Hon Tony Abbott MP with the winners of the 2014 My First Speech competition. Left to right: Courtney Sinclair, Zachary August and Chay Conaglen.

Parliamentary assistants program

In 2014–15 the parliamentary assistants program, run by the Serjeant-at-Arms’ Office, entered its fifteenth year. The program offers university students part-time employment in the House of Representatives in order to promote understanding of and engagement with the work of the parliament. (For further details Members' services and corporate support section.)

Parliamentary internship program

The Australian National Internship Program has operated since 1993 under an agreement between the Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University and the Australian Parliament’s Presiding Officers. Australian and international students enrolled at the university under the program undertake an internship placement of about 10 weeks as part of their formal course of undergraduate study.

In the second semester of 2014, 17 of the 53 students enrolled in the program were placed with a member or senator. In the first semester of 2015, another 53 interns were in the program, of whom 22 were placed with a member or senator.

The departments of the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as the Parliamentary Library, assist the program. The House and Senate departments provide an orientation seminar for all students before they take up their placements at Parliament House and elsewhere. During the placement, each student completes a research project on a subject agreed with their host. The report is assessed by the university and counts towards the student’s degree.

The program has continued to provide students from around Australia and from other countries with an opportunity to extend and complement their academic studies by studying and working in the parliamentary environment.

Parliamentary exchange program for Australian Defence Force

Each year, a small number of Australian Defence Force representatives spend a week at Parliament House, hosted by a member or senator. This arrangement began in 2003 as an expansion of a program begun in 2001, under which members and senators took up a short placement with Defence personnel and participated in their working lives. Arrangements for participation by members and senators are made through the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence in conjunction with the Department of Defence.

The program was run in September 2014, with members and senators hosting 15 Defence Force representatives.

The departments of the House of Representatives and the Senate collaborate to support the exchange program and provide orientation seminars on the work of the chambers and committees.

Public visits to the House

In 2014–15, public interest in the sittings of the House continued to be high. Over the 73 sitting days, 67,195 people attended the galleries, and visitor numbers peaked at more than 1,000 per day on 24 occasions.

The high level of interest partly reflected a number of high-profile parliamentary events during the year. On budget day (13 May 2015), 1,410 people visited the chamber, slightly down from 1,432 in 2014, and 1,403 people visited on budget reply night, down from 1,720 in 2014.

These events required close coordination between the Serjeant-at-Arms’ Office, the Australian Federal Police and the Parliamentary Security Service.

Parliamentary Education Office

Administered by the Department of the Senate, the Parliamentary Education Office (PEO) is a joint office and receives part funding from the department. Its mission is to provide parliamentary education services to schools, teachers and students. It also provides parliamentary education support services to members and senators.

The two departments liaise closely on the PEO’s strategic direction and the content of its teaching, educational material and online resources through the PEO Advisory Committee, jointly chaired by the Deputy Speaker and Deputy President. The committee may also advise the Presiding Officers on the support needs of members and senators in relation to parliamentary education. The committee met in November 2014 and June 2015. The Clerk Assistant (Table) attended as an observer.

Programs at Parliament House

In 2014–15, 90,132 students from around Australia participated in the PEO’s experiential role-play program at Parliament House, compared with 87,657 students in 2013–14. This represents an increase of 2.8 per cent, and signals a return to normal class demand after a slight reduction in 2013–14. Attendance figures reflect the program’s continued popularity. The cumulative total of students who have participated in role-play programs since the Parliament House building opened in 1988 is more than 1.89 million. The PEO also conducted a number of specially targeted activities at Parliament House involving students, trainee and qualified teachers, parliamentary visitors and Indigenous groups. These activities included overseeing the long-running Rotary Adventure in Citizenship program in budget week and supporting several National Youth Science Forums in January.

Minor changes were made to the PEO’s operating procedures for school groups to ensure compliance with the enhanced security requirements at Parliament House.

The parliamentary Venue Management System, which includes school tour bookings, continues to undergo refinement. When fully functional, the system will provide improved information and services to schools and tour operators booking student programs at Parliament House. A welcome feature of the new system is the provision of more comprehensive information for members and senators on visiting school groups.

Outreach activities

The PEO continues to invest in a comprehensive range of outreach strategies to ensure it is able to provide parliamentary education services to a broad student population, not just those able to travel to Canberra.

The PEO website (www.peo.gov.au) remains a highly effective and popular vehicle for disseminating parliamentary education material and resources to teachers and students located around Australia. PEO website patronage increased in 2014–15 to 907,523 visitor sessions. When compared to the 719,124 visitor sessions in 2013–14, this represents an increase of 26 per cent. The increase may reflect the addition of considerable new content and improved functionality, which has broadened audience appeal and allows the site to better support the draft national curriculum in civics and citizenship. The introduction of rolling advertisements on the homepage for web content is also likely to have expanded the website’s appeal.

During the year, the PEO continued to revise and update web content and developed significant new content, including new videos, expanded resources supporting the national curriculum and a new feature, ‘Your questions on notice’, which allows students to ask questions of parliamentary educators. To commemorate the significant anniversaries of the sealing of Magna Carta and World War I, new educational resources focusing on these important historical events were developed and posted online. The PEO also continued to develop and field information about current parliamentary events and the achievements and statistics of the Forty-fourth Parliament.

In recognition of its national responsibilities, the PEO continues to explore the potential of new technology for the remote delivery of PEO programs and resources, including interactive video conferencing, which was trialled successfully during the year.

School visit program

The PEO continued its work with members and senators on a limited scale through a targeted school visit program called Parliament Alive. In 2014–15, visits took place to schools in regional eastern Victoria, suburban Adelaide and north-central regional New South Wales. These activities provided participating students with an invaluable opportunity to learn firsthand about the role and work of their federal member or senator.

Educational resources

The PEO continued to produce a wide range of educational resources, both in print and online, including several new educational videos for students and teachers. A series of lesson plans for teachers, based on the draft national curriculum in civics and citizenship, were also developed. Demand for PEO publications and resources from both teachers and parliamentarians continued to be strong over the course of the year.

A new personalised resource for members and senators, ‘Representing you’, was developed to support member and senator interaction with students in their electorates and states and territories. PEO publications and resources were regularly reviewed and updated to ensure their currency, accuracy and ongoing relevance.

Improving performance

The department’s Community Outreach Strategy 2013–16 outlines a clear strategic direction to enhance the department’s multimedia products and services, particularly through the use of digital platforms.

The continued expansion of the department’s social media reach, mainly through Twitter, is steadily improving our ability to direct our audiences to information about the work of the House. We will continue to explore ways of leveraging this platform to draw attention to the work of the House.

An administrative restructure occurred in 2014, bringing together the department’s community outreach team with its knowledge management and publishing team. This union of our traditional information and knowledge services with our public-facing outreach activities has already strengthened the overall outcomes that both teams deliver for the department.

Outlook

The department will continue to enhance its community engagement in 2015–16, through a revised community outreach strategy. The department is seeking to direct its growing digital subscriber base to its core web content, to improve community awareness and understanding of the work of the House and parliament more generally. We will also work to improve the profile of committee activities by investigating more effective ways of engaging with the media and the community, and developing tailored communication strategies.

The department will build on its popular seminar program by investigating the introduction of more topics and different approaches to delivery. We will continue to encourage youth engagement with the House through activities such as the My First Speech competition and the Speaker’s University Challenge.

The Serjeant-at-Arms’ Office will continue to meet regularly and work with colleagues in the PEO and Visitor Services, as well as the wider community, to provide the best possible service to the variety of people who visit Parliament House.