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Supporting the operations of the Chamber and Federation Chamber is a key focus of the work of the department. The Clerk’s Office, Table Office and Chamber Research Office work together to manage the day-to-day operations of the chambers, with other areas contributing as necessary.

This reporting period saw additional demands placed on the department, associated with both the end of the Forty-third Parliament and, following the general election, the commencement of the Forty-fourth Parliament. In addition, we continued to:

• advise the Speaker and members of the House of Representatives
• advise on programming of House business, and provide procedural support
• process and draft bills
• prepare and publish the record of proceedings of the House
• process, provide access to and manage the custody of the documents and records of the House
• undertake procedural and parliamentary research
• produce information and publications on House practice and procedure
• maintain procedural and statistical records on the work of the House
• provide secretariat support to several domestic committees.

In 2013–14, the budget allocation for the component was $3.138 million and expenditure was $3.209 million. Staff levels, by location, are shown in Appendix 11.

An election year

The House was dissolved on 5 August 2013, bringing the Forty-third Parliament to an end. The dissolution of the House triggers a range of administrative tasks, including finalisation of House records and other housekeeping functions. The period between the dissolution of the House and the opening of the new parliament on 12 November 2013 (the election period) provided an opportunity for staff to start preparing for the opening of the Forty-fourth Parliament, including making arrangements for the swearing in of all 150 members and the election of a Speaker, Deputy Speaker and Second Deputy Speaker. Following discussions with the incoming government, amendments to the standing orders were drafted, including changes to sitting hours and private members’ business. The election period also allowed for significant progress to be made on longer term projects such as the development of the Table Offices Production System (see Information technology).

Performance summary

The program component’s work is focused on supporting the sittings of the House of Representatives Chamber and meetings of the Federation Chamber. Performance is measured in two ways—qualitatively, through the annual survey of members; and quantitatively, through information on the sittings of the House, the meetings of the Federation Chamber and the business conducted in the Chamber and Federation Chamber.

The annual survey of members (see Appendix 12) showed a continuing high level of satisfaction with the department’s support for the Chamber and Federation Chamber. All respondents were satisfied with our advice and support. Respondents were ‘extremely satisfied’ or ‘highly satisfied’ with the following areas:

• advice and services received from the Clerks-at-the-Table in the Chamber and Federation Chamber—100 per cent (95 per cent in 2012–13)
• advice and services received from other staff in relation to Chamber and Federation Chamber duties—100 per cent (90 per cent in 2012–13)
• quality and availability of procedural and statistical publications and support in obtaining such information—81 per cent (90 per cent in 2012–13).

Statistical information on the sittings of the House and meetings of the Federation Chamber in 2013–14 and the two preceding years is shown in Table 1.

As would be expected in an election year, the statistics show a reduction in the sitting hours of the Chamber and Federation Chamber. After the election, the House did not sit until 12 November 2013; in a full sitting year the House would be expected to sit for several weeks in the period from July to November. In 2013–14, sitting days totalled 53. This figure represents a decrease of six days from the previous year (10.2 per cent fewer days). There was a corresponding reduction in the total number of sitting hours. In 2013–14 the House sat for 79 fewer hours than in the previous year (13.1 per cent less time) and the Federation Chamber met for 104 fewer hours than in the previous year (40.6 per cent less time). However, legislative activity continued at a relatively high level during the period, with 182 bills introduced (241 in 2012–13) and 94 bills passed by both Houses and assented to (228 in
2012–13). The continued high level of legislative activity in a reduced number of sitting days placed significant demands on departmental staff, particularly in the final sitting fortnight, when 46 bills were prepared for assent by the Governor-General—nearly half (48.3 per cent) of all bills assented to during the year.

Detailed information on the business of the House and the Federation Chamber is in Appendix 3 and in the department’s publication Work of the Session (available on the Parliament of Australia website).  

Table 1: Performance summary, Chamber and Federation Chamber, 2011–12 to 2013–14

Aspect of performance	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14a
Number of sittings of the House	68	59	53
Number of meetings of the Federation Chamber	59	55	40
Hours of sittings of the Houseb	691	602	523
Hours of meetings of the Federation Chamberb	306	256	152
Number of bills introduced	256	241	182
Number of bills that passed both Houses and were assented toc	221	228	94

a Election year.
b Excludes suspensions; rounded to the nearest hour.
c Includes bills that passed both Houses in the financial year but were assented to in the following financial year.

 

Advice on practice and procedure

The Clerk, Deputy Clerk and other staff members provided advice to the Speaker, members and others on the practice and procedure of the House.

We provided immediate advice and support to the new Speaker, ministers, shadow ministers, members and others as they assumed new roles following the election. We also provided detailed written advice. Subjects addressed included the application of the standing orders and the practice of the House; the content of questions without notice; the election of House officers; procedures for private members’ business; delegated legislation and the disallowance process; the requirements of the Constitution and standing orders in respect of financial legislation; privilege matters; and requirements of the House in respect of the registration of members’ interests.

Programming and coordination of business

Throughout 2013–14, we continued to provide advice and services to facilitate sittings of the House and meetings of the Federation Chamber, including:

• offering programming and procedural advice to ministers, shadow ministers, party whips, other members, their staff and others
  preparing and publishing each sitting day:
  • the Notice Paper—a document listing all unresolved business before the House in the proposed order of consideration
  • the Daily Program (also known as ‘the Blue’)—an informal agenda for the day
  • procedural scripts for all items of business for use in the Chamber and the Federation Chamber
• providing chamber support from the Serjeant-at-Arms’ Office for sittings of the House and meetings of the Federation Chamber to oversee ceremonial and security arrangements and ensure the availability of chamber papers
• processing members’ questions in writing to ministers, including editing them for compliance with the standing orders and publishing them in the Notice Paper for the next sitting day, and managing answers to questions
• providing a captioning service for the televised and webcast proceedings of the House and Federation Chamber
• publishing This Week in the House, a weekly online forecast of expected business for the House, and its counterpart, Last Week in the House.

Table 2 provides details of the number of questions in writing to ministers dealt with by the House in the five years from 2009–10 to 2013–14.

All sittings required the coordination of people, documents and actions, and the programming of the following categories of business:

• government business (for example, government legislation)
• private members’ business (motions and bills proposed by private members)
• House business (matters potentially involving all members—for example, question time, debate on committee reports or matters of privilege).

A longitudinal view of the amount of time the House (Chamber and Federation Chamber inclusive) devoted to each of these types of business is shown in Figure 4. In the Forty-third Parliament, there was a reduction in the proportion of time allocated to government business and business of the House, which is reflected in the significant increase in private members’ business time.

Table 2 Questions in writing to ministers and answers to questions in writing, 2009–10 to 2013–14

	2009-10	2010-11a	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14a
Questions in writingb	571	441	678	411	201
Questions answeredc	444	335	491	374	126

a Election year.
b Excludes questions withdrawn.
c The responsibility for responding to questions in writing rests with the individual ministers to whom the questions are put.

Figure 4: Government and private members’ business and business of the House (Chamber and Federation Chamber), 2010 to 2014 [Text-only description]

Note: Private members’ business includes consideration of private members’ motions and bills and other opportunities for private members, such as adjournment debates and discussion of matters of public importance.

Processing and drafting of bills

Legislation

Our support for the legislative process in 2013–14 included:

• receiving bills from the Office of Parliamentary Counsel and keeping them in custody under embargo before their introduction
• providing bills to ministers for introduction, and to all members in the Chamber after introduction
• uploading bills, explanatory memorandums and proposed amendments to the Parliament of Australia website, and providing an over-the-counter inquiry service for access to hard copies of bills and associated material
• processing all bills and amendments to bills—from introduction to assent for bills initiated in the House, and from introduction in the House until passage by the House for bills initiated in the Senate
• providing a legislative drafting service for private members
• preparing and delivering messages to the Senate—we prepared 162 messages relating to the passage of bills in 2013–14 (242 in 2012–13) and 24 other messages (26 in 2012–13)
• preparing and issuing each sitting day a Daily Bills List, which provides cumulative information on the status of all bills before the parliament or assented to in the current calendar year.

Chamber staff of both Houses continued to work with the developer of the bills system to maintain optimal levels of technical support. The Bills System Advisory Group continued its role in advising the Bills System Advisory Board on system enhancements and satisfying business requirements.

Queries of the bills and legislation collection on the website totalled 21.7 million during the year, an increase of 12.2 per cent from the previous year (19.3 million in 2012–13). This total represented 23.0 per cent of the queries made through ParlInfo Search. Work to include bills from earlier parliaments in the electronic storage system continued, but proceeded slowly because of other demands on Table Office staff.

Legislative workload

During the year, 182 bills were introduced (241 in 2012–13), a decrease of 24.5 per cent from the previous year—fewer than the long-term average but not unusual for a year with an election and change of government. Of these, 180 were initiated in the House of Representatives and two were received from the Senate. A total of 94 bills passed both Houses (229¹ in 2012–13), of which 92 were initiated in the House of Representatives (224 in 2012–13) and two in the Senate (five in 2012–13). Table 3 shows the number of bills introduced and assented to in the five years from 2009–10 to 2013–14.

In 2013–14, the House passed 154 bills (221 in 2012–13). This represented 2.9 bills on average for each sitting, compared with 3.7 bills on average in the previous year.

The House amended six (3.9 per cent) of the bills it passed (48 (21.3 per cent) in 2012–13). The Table Office incorporated the amendments into the text of the bills and arranged for their reprinting (as third-reading prints) before transmittal to the Senate. The House also agreed to Senate amendments, made amendments requested by the Senate, or both, to six House bills (17 in 2012–13), with further processing by the Table Office before the bills were presented to the Governor-General for assent. The House made amendments to one bill in place of Senate amendments that were not agreed to (included in the total, above, of House bills with Senate amendments agreed to by the
House).

The number of amendments moved during consideration in detail fell sharply, from 923 in 2012–13 to 66 in 2013–14. This reflects the return to majority government and the more usual pattern of amendments, and has eased the burden on departmental staff responsible for the range of processes associated with amendments.

Of the 66 amendments moved, 14 were passed, all of which were government amendments. The House did not amend any bills initiated in the Senate in 2013–14, or in the previous year.

The Table Office prepared six third-reading prints (48 in 2012–13) and 92 assent prints (223 in 2012–13). All documents accurately reflected the decisions of both Houses.

Table 3: Number of bills introduced in the House, and number of bills assented to, 2009–10 to 2013–14

	2009-10	2010-11a	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14a
Bills introduced	236	186	256	241	182
Bills assented tob	178	116	221	228	94

a Election year.
b Includes bills that passed both Houses in the financial year but were assented to in the following financial year.

Legislative drafting

The department drafts bills, amendments and second-reading (in-principle) amendments for private members, and ensures that these documents comply with the Constitution and the standing orders. The department also prepares bills and amendments in correct form and arranges copies for circulation.

The increase in the number of private members’ bills being requested and introduced, noted in last year’s annual report, has continued. In 2013–14, seven private members’ bills were introduced. Of the 66 amendments moved during the year, 52 were private members’ amendments, none of which were agreed to. Table 4 provides chamber statistics for private members’ legislation. The table does not reflect all of the department’s work in this area, as some drafted material is not introduced into the
House.

The department has continued the arrangement entered into in 2010–11 with the Office of Parliamentary Counsel (OPC) whereby a senior OPC drafter is seconded to the department. This arrangement has had mutual benefits for the department and the OPC.

Table 4 Private members’ bills introduced and amendments moved (Chamber and Federation Chamber), 2009–10 to 2013–14

	2009-10	2010-11a	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14a
Bills introduced	15	17	25	30	182
Second-reading amendments moved	12	14	17	9	94
Consideration in detail amendments movedb	134	292	732	923	66

a Election year.
b Includes government amendments.

1 Figure includes the Constitution Alteration (Local Government) 2013, which was passed by both Houses but not submitted to a referendum—see section 128 of the Constitution.

Record of proceedings and House documents

Votes and Proceedings

The Votes and Proceedings continued to provide an accurate, comprehensive and concise record of proceedings. The draft document for each sitting day is published on the Parliament of Australia website, usually within an hour of the adjournment of the House.

The Votes and Proceedings is prepared from the Votes Officer’s Minutes, an electronic draft record of the proceedings of the House and the Federation Chamber. The Votes Officer’s Minutes (also known as the Live Minutes) is more detailed than the Votes and Proceedings and are compiled progressively throughout a sitting day. The Votes Officer’s Minutes enable anyone with access to the internet to follow events in the House and Federation Chamber as they occur. Internal and external clients continued to provide positive feedback on this service.

As noted below, the Table Offices Production System was put into partial production in May 2014. The Votes and Proceedings and Votes Officer’s Minutes were included in the initial release. Staff have met the challenge of continuing to produce the high-quality products that clients expect, while adjusting to the new system and continuing to work with the developers to iron out any problems that become apparent as the system is put into production. This has meant extended hours for some staff.

Documents

During the year, we processed all documents presented to the House and recorded their details in the Votes and Proceedings and the Index to Papers Presented to Parliament. We made copies available on request to members and their staff and others, principally in Parliament House. The original documents were added to the records of the House, which we continued to maintain. We also continued to review our requirements for tabling stock in light of the ever-improving online availability of documents and declining demand for hard copies.

In 2013–14, documents presented to the House numbered 4,253 (6,116 in 2012–13), a decrease of 30 per cent compared to the previous year.

The implementation of the Table Offices Production System has been particularly important for recording documents presented to the parliament and linking them to the Votes and Proceedings. Once all planned functions have been incorporated and expected efficiencies are realised, the recording of and reporting on documents should be greatly simplified. The system has also required increased cooperation with our Senate counterparts to ensure that the shared database is appropriately managed and utilised to safeguard the integrity of the data.

To meet the needs of clients, on each sitting day the Table Office prepares and issues a Disallowable Instruments List in both electronic and hard-copy form. The list provides details of all instruments presented to the House that are subject to disallowance, by the number of sitting days remaining in which a notice of disallowance can be lodged.

Parliamentary Papers Series

The Parliamentary Papers Series consists of documents of a substantial nature presented to the parliament since 1901. As reported last year, the electronic Parliamentary Papers Series became accessible from the beginning of 2013. The repository for the series continues to grow. It enables centralised electronic access to the documents themselves through the ParlInfo Tabled Papers Register. The documents section of the Table Offices Production System has helped to streamline the process of uploading Parliamentary Papers to the repository.

The department is responsible for the custody and preservation of, and the provision of access to, the official records of the House, including Acts, bills, the Votes and Proceedings and all documents presented to the House dating from 1901. The records are stored in an archive in the basement at Parliament House. We continue to monitor the suitability of the archive environment.

Petitions

Australians continue to use the House petitioning process to raise issues of interest and concern to them. Table 5 shows the number of petitions presented to the House, and the number of signatories, for the past five years. In 2013–14, 75 petitions were presented, fewer than the 125 petitions presented in 2012–13. The decrease may reflect the tendency for people’s desire to air grievances and raise awareness on major issues to diminish during an election period. The dramatic increase in signatories is due to the presentation in February 2014 of a petition with the greatest number of signatories on record (signatures were first recorded in 1988).The petition, regarding funding support for community pharmacies, was signed by 1,210,471 petitioners. (See also information on the Standing Committee on Petitions)

Table 5 Petitions and signatories to petitions, 2009–10 to 2013–14

	2009-10	2010-11a	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14a
Number of petitions presented	163	129	183	125	75
Number of signatories	270, 964	445,921	446,619	325,360	1,365,151

a  Election year

Research

The Chamber Research Office continued in its principal function of collecting, analysing and publishing procedural and statistical information on the work of the House and its committees.

In 2013–14, the office provided:

• advice, and assistance with advice, to the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker and members on the application of the standing orders and House practices
• secretariat services to the Standing Committee on Procedure and the Standing Committee on Petitions
• advice about and publications on House statistics, practices and procedure
• information to the public, the media and other parliaments on the operations of the House.

The services of the office continued to be in high demand due to sustained high levels of interest in the procedures and operations of the House.

House pictorial collection

Work continued on upgrading the cataloguing and storage of the House pictorial collection during the reporting period, but it was affected by the continuing need both for extensive research on each photograph for identification purposes and for the office to respond to sustained high levels of demand for its other services. During the election period further progress was made, so that by the end of the reporting period approximately three-quarters of the collection had been catalogued. The project has revealed some records that were not previously documented, and upon completion will enable better access to the department’s collection of images as well as ensure the department’s compliance with current records management standards.

Publications

The office continued its pattern of producing regular publications that outline significant procedural events and popular statistics. These are usually produced after each sitting fortnight. The Procedural Digest, a subject-based record of proceedings, is published online, and the Procedural Extracts, a technical document, is also prepared. The office published the Statistical Digest after each sitting fortnight. Work of the Session, a comprehensive six-monthly overview of the business of the House and committees, was published in August 2013 and January 2014. The series of 21 infosheets on the work of the House was updated in February 2014, and an additional infosheet—on political parties— was created during the year. Together, these publications provide a current and concise record of the work of the House and the more significant aspects of the nature of that work. The department’s publications, including the infosheet series, are listed in Appendix 10.

The Chamber Research Office maintains, publishes and distributes the standing orders of the House. The standing orders were reprinted as at 14 November 2013, incorporating a number of amendments made by the House on 13 and 14 November 2013. Inserts were created when the standing orders were amended on 13 February 2014 and 19 March 2014.

Collaboration with the Department of the Senate

The office continued its longstanding collaboration with colleagues in the Department of the Senate, including through participation in orientation seminars for the Australian National Internship Program and the Australian Defence Force Parliamentary Program (discussed in more detail Community relations and awareness section).

Collaboration with other parliaments

Through the different formats of its publications, the office caters for a wide variety of readers, and staff are frequently asked to share their experiences and knowledge with counterparts from other parliaments. The office continued to collaborate with colleagues and members from other parliaments by participating in study programs, meetings during delegation visits, and capacity-building work. The systems and skills established over the years to record, analyse and publish information on the procedural work of the House continue to be the subject of discussion and collaboration with colleagues from other parliaments. The office’s partnership with colleagues at the South Australian House of Assembly to redevelop the department’s procedural database and create the Parliamentary Procedural Records System is discussed in more detail in the Information Technology section.

Parliamentary committees

The department continued to provide effective secretariat and advisory support to a number of House committees, and to one joint committee dealing with the powers and procedures of the House (see Table 6).

In 2013–14, these committees held a total of 55 meetings (105 in 2012–13) and produced 17 reports (50 in 2012–13). Details of meetings and reports are set out in Appendixes 4 and 5.

Table 6 Committees supported by the Chamber and Federation Chamber component, 2013–14

House committees
Selection Committee
Standing Committee on Appropriations and Administration
Standing Committee of Privileges and Members’ Interests
Standing Committee on Petitions
Standing Committee on Procedure
Standing Committee on Publications
Joint Committee
Joint Committee on the Broadcasting of Parliamentary Proceedings

Selection Committee

The Selection Committee continued to operate during the reporting period. It has three important roles:

• selecting and programming private members’ business and committee and delegation business
• setting speaking times for second-reading debates (the committee has not as yet exercised this role)
• considering all bills introduced and determining whether to refer bills directly to House or joint committees for inquiry.

Following a change to standing orders for the Forty-fourth Parliament, referrals of bills can only be made by a majority decision of the committee (previously an individual member of the committee could have a bill referred). Under this revised procedure, one bill was referred to a committee in 2013–14 (66 in 2012–13).

Another change to the committee’s functions was that it ceased to have the power to recommend items of private members’ business for a vote in the House.

The committee consists of 11 members: the Speaker (as chair), the chief whips of the three parties, four government members and three non-government members. The committee met 18 times during the reporting period. The Selection Committee is supported by Table Office staff.

Standing Committee on Appropriations and Administration

The Standing Committee on Appropriations and Administration considers, among other things, estimates of the funding required for the operation of the department each year. When conferring with its counterpart Senate committee—the Senate Standing Committee on Appropriations and Staffing—the House committee may consider estimates of the funding required for the operation of the Department of Parliamentary Services each year.

The committee has nine members: the Speaker (as chair), four government members and four non-government members. It is supported by the Clerk, the Serjeant-at-Arms and other officers of the department. During the year the committee met three times and presented one report.

Standing Committee of Privileges and Members’ Interests

The Standing Committee of Privileges and Members’ Interests met six times during the reporting period. During 2012–13, the committee had suspended its inquiry referred by the House in May 2012 into whether, in the course of a statement made to the House by the Member for Dobell (Mr Craig Thomson MP), the member deliberately misled the House, following the laying of criminal charges against Mr Thomson. As the committee had not completed its work, the inquiry lapsed on dissolution of the House on 5 August 2013. On 24 May 2014, the committee had a new inquiry referred by the House into whether Mr Thomson had deliberately misled the House in the course of his statement to the House and having regard to the findings of the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on 18 February 2014.

Standing Committee on Petitions

The Standing Committee on Petitions continued to assess petitions for compliance with relevant House standing orders, and to enable the presentation of petitions found to be in order and of ministerial responses to petitions presented previously. The committee and secretariat continued to interact with principal petitioners about petitions being prepared for collection of signatures and about ‘completed’ petitions received by the committee.

On sitting Mondays, the chair of the committee presented ‘in-order’ petitions that other members had not elected to present, and also presented written responses from ministers to petitions presented earlier on which the committee had sought comment. The ‘terms’ (the stated reasons for the petition and the action requested) of petitions presented and the corresponding ministerial responses were published in Hansard and on the Parliament of Australia website in accordance with standing orders.

During the year, 75 petitions were presented (a decrease of 40 per cent from the previous year—possibly explained by the completion of the general election) with a total of 1,365,151 signatures (an increase of 319.6 per cent from the previous year). The increase in signatures was due in part to a petition with a record number of signatures (1,210,471) that was considered by the committee and presented to the House in 2013–14.

There were 64 ministerial response letters presented. Responses from ministers explain the government’s policies and programs on the subject matter of petitions.

The committee may hold public roundtable hearings with principal petitioners and representatives of relevant government agencies to explore issues with petitioners and to allow public servants to explain the relevant legislation, policy, programs or administration. Roundtable hearings were not held in 2013–14, given that the committee was not established until November 2013 and customarily holds roundtable hearings to consider selected petitions in more detail after presentation and receipt of a response from a minister.

Standing Committee on Procedure

The Standing Committee on Procedure usually meets once each sitting week. The previous committee’s report presented in June 2013, Maintenance of the Standing and Sessional Orders, formed the basis of a number of technical amendments to standing orders in a package of amendments that were agreed to on the second day of the Forty-fourth Parliament. The current committee has adopted terms of reference for inquiries into the maintenance of the Standing and Sessional Orders and the use of electronic devices in the Chamber, Federation Chamber and committees.

Standing Committee on Publications

The House Publications Committee met twice in 2013–14, and met with the Senate Publications Committee another three times. The committee presented four reports containing recommendations on which documents presented to parliament should be included in the Parliamentary Papers Series. All recommended documents were agreed for inclusion.

Joint Committee on the Broadcasting of Parliamentary Proceedings

The Parliamentary Proceedings Broadcasting Act 1946 requires ABC radio and, in some circumstances, ABC television to broadcast the proceedings of parliament. It is the statutory role of the Joint Committee on the Broadcasting of Parliamentary Proceedings to advise parliament on general principles for the allocation of radio broadcasting time between the two chambers and to determine a more detailed schedule of broadcasting allocations. The committee tabled redrafted general principles and advice to the ABC in June 2013.

As detailed on Services and advice section of this report, the general principles were adopted by both chambers in December 2013, along with new resolutions also drafted by the committee relating to the broadcasting of parliamentary proceedings.

Under the Parliamentary Proceedings Broadcasting Act, the committee has nine members, including the Speaker and the President of the Senate. By tradition, the Speaker is chair and the President is vice-chair. The committee met once during the reporting period, and is supported by the Serjeant-at-Arms’ Office.

Procedural training

The department continued to support its staff to develop specialised knowledge and skills in the application of parliamentary law, practice and procedure through a range of measures. These measures include:

• regular parliamentary briefings delivered by senior departmental staff
• training programs run by senior departmental staff, including a workshop on parliamentary privilege
• sitting debriefs following each sitting week or fortnight, focusing on matters of procedural interest
• shadowing opportunities, enabling staff to learn specialist skills such as the preparation of House procedures, the Notice Paper and the Votes and Proceedings. With sufficient experience, the use of shadowing allows chamber support staff to finish work earlier on some sitting nights and provides a backup in the event of staffing absences or turnover
• opportunities for participation in the annual Australia and New Zealand Association of Clerks-at-the-Table (ANZACATT) professional development seminar
• for a small number of staff, participation in the Graduate Certificate in Parliamentary Law and Practice, currently taught by the University of Tasmania under the auspices of ANZACATT.

Information technology

The first phase of the Table Offices Production System (TOPS), a joint project with the Department of the Senate, was put into production in April 2014 and was used to support sittings during the period commencing on budget day. The system has been used to produce the Notice Paper, Daily Program, Votes and Proceedings and Live Minutes. While it has been possible to produce documents, technical issues arising from the complexity of the design and changed business processes have resulted in significant additional demands on staff and in some cases additional hours on already long sitting days. The vendor has been providing onsite support during sitting weeks and working with departmental staff to address issues arising during the warranty period. It is anticipated that there will continue to be some fine-tuning of the system in the coming months, to improve the system’s responsiveness and performance.

Planning for the second phase of the TOPS project is well underway. Phase 2 will enable production of the procedural text used by members in the Chamber and Federation Chamber, as well as some further enhancements to the system. It is expected to run through 2014, with the enhancements in place for sittings in the first half of 2015.

Redevelopment of the department’s Parliamentary Procedural Records System, in collaboration with the South Australian House of Assembly, was almost complete by year end, with the searchable database of records of procedural events in the House and Federation Chamber undergoing final testing before being released.

Improving performance

With a return to majority government, many of the procedural challenges experienced during the Forty-third Parliament have lessened. However, the change of government led to an increase in the advisory services provided by the department as new members became familiar with parliamentary procedure and as more experienced members assumed new roles. Procedural training and development continued to be a priority during the year.

Outlook

In 2013–14, considerable time and resources were invested in putting the Table Offices Production System into operation. The next reporting period will see a period of consolidation and enhancement of the system and associated workflows, with the hope that the anticipated efficiencies arising from a new system can be realised.

It is expected that 2014–15 will bring a return to the long-term pattern of Chamber and Federation Chamber support activity. The focus will continue to be on providing high-quality services to meet the needs of members and other clients. The department’s budgetary situation will remain tight, but within those constraints the department will continue to ensure that staff are well trained and equipped to deal with challenges that might arise.