The Joint Committee on Publications
1.1
The Joint Committee on Publications (the Committee) is irregular in that it is comprised of two separate committees: the Publications Committee of the House of Representatives, and the Publications Committee of the Senate. The primary role of each publications committee is to make recommendations, to its relevant house, on documents presented to Parliament that should be included in the Parliamentary Papers Series (PPS).
1.2
The committees may meet separately or together as a Joint Committee. When meeting jointly, the Committee has the power to “inquire into and report on the publication and distribution of parliamentary and government publications and on matters referred to it by a Minister”.
1.3
Since its establishment in 1970, the Committee has used its investigative power only 14 times. This is the 15th report of an inquiry by the Committee and the sixth dealing specifically with the PPS.
Documents presented to Parliament
1.4
Various documents are presented (tabled) in Parliament. They include reports of parliamentary committees, the Auditor-General, Royal Commissions as well as annual reports of government departments, agencies and corporations and other periodic reports with a statutory basis.
1.5
The purpose of presenting documents is to keep the Parliament—and through it the community—informed of the Government’s activities. The presentation of a document to Parliament; provides a primary source of information for Members and Senators to scrutinise and hold the Government of the day to account; and places the document on the public record.
1.6
To facilitate the process of informing Parliament of the Government’s activities, author agencies are required to provide a certain number of copies of their document when presenting them. Five copies are provided to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) Tabling Officer – used for the purpose of formally presenting the document in the chambers, they are certified by the clerks of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and become the official tabled copies of the chamber. Thirty stock copies are delivered to each chamber departments’ Table Offices for the use of Senators and Members upon request. Nine copies are made available for researchers in the Parliamentary Library. The parliamentary press gallery is supplied with forty copies. Until 2016, thirty copies were distributed among the recipients of the PPS. Additionally, a digital copy is required which is used for the electronic Parliamentary Papers Series (ePPS). There is also a requirement for author bodies to have copies provided to the combined Commonwealth Library Deposit and Free Issue Schemes (LDS).
The Parliamentary Papers Series (PPS)
1.7
The PPS forms a subset of all documents presented to Parliament. The series was designed to be a comprehensive collection of those documents considered to be of a substantial nature. It is a permanent record, documenting significant activities of the Australian Government and Parliament. As such it serves as a useful reference source for information and research.
1.8
Ultimate responsibility for deciding on whether a document presented to Parliament is substantial enough to be included in the PPS resides with both or either House of the Parliament. This responsibility of recommending documents to be made Parliamentary Papers is discharged by the Publications Committee of each House acting independently or jointly.
1.9
At the time a document is presented to Parliament, a motion may be moved to have it included in the series. The majority of documents, however, become part of the series by way of recommendation of the Committee to its respective House.
1.10
A key function of the Committee is to consider all documents that have been tabled in Parliament and not already ordered to be made a Parliamentary Paper by either House. The Committee can only make recommendations; it is for the Houses to decide whether a document is to be included in the PPS. The Committee makes its recommendations by way of a report. On resolving that the report be agreed to, effect is given to the Committee’s recommendations and the documents are included in the PPS.
Printing standards for documents presented to Parliament
Purpose
1.11
The printing standards for documents presented to the Parliament (the Standards) are prepared by the Committee. The Standards apply to all Parliamentary Papers and ensure that documents selected for inclusion in the PPS conform to the series’ requirements.
1.12
The Standards provide guidance for agencies in the following areas:
Production quality and value for money;
Use of colour and illustrations;
Number of copies required for the PPS; and
1.13
The current printing standards (as issued at 1 January 2008) are attached in Appendix C.
Application
1.14
The Standards are designed to ensure conformity among the documents that comprise the PPS. However, as any document can be ordered to be made a Parliamentary Paper – by resolution of either house – the Committee considers that they apply to all documents that are presented to Parliament.
1.15
The Standards are supported by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and are provided as advice to government agencies that are required to present documents to Parliament.
Background and scope of the inquiry
1.16
On Thursday, 10 November 2016, the Committee resolved to inquire into and report on the printing standards for documents presented to Parliament. Two key developments in relation to the PPS made revisiting the standards timely:
as of 2013, the PPS has been available online through the Parliament’s ParlInfo document repository. This resulted from recommendations of the Committee’s 2010 report into the development of a digital repository and electronic distribution of the PPS; and
in the 44th Parliament, the Presiding Officers, agreed that the 2016 PPS would be the last of the series distributed to recipients in hardcopy, printed format, with the 2017 series, and beyond, only available electronically through the ePPS.
1.17
The Committee invited interested stakeholders, including all recipients of the PPS to make submissions to the inquiry, with submissions open until 3 March 2017. In total, eight organisations made submissions to the inquiry. A list of submissions is provided in Appendix A.
1.18
On Thursday, 22 June 2017, the Committee held a roundtable discussion in Canberra with relevant stakeholders (including a number who had not earlier tendered a submission). Details of the participants of this discussion are listed in Appendix B.