Click here to return to GovPubs: the Australian Parliamentary Publications Guide home page

A CASL Reference Issues Working Group Initiative

 

Parliamentary Handbooks - Australia (Commonwealth)

Parliamentary Library Biographies Database

1984-

Full-text searchable database of biographies of Members and Senators who have been in Parliament since 1984.

Locate a copy of this publication:

Web Publications

Parliamentary Library Biographies Database is a Further Reading of Parliamentary Handbooks - Australia (Commonwealth)

The first edition of the Parliamentary Handbook, published in 1915, had the title Biographical Handbook and Record of Elections for the Parliament of the Commonwealth. It was published at the recommendation of the Joint Library Committee: in a two-page Report to Parliament in 1915, the Committee indicated it had “caused to be prepared in the library, a Commonwealth Parliamentary Handbook, giving a short political biography, whether in State or Commonwealth, of all Members of both Houses since the initiation of Federation, with portraits in most cases, particulars of every election in the same period, with other information likely to be useful” [Australia. Parliament. Joint Library Committee. Report. 1915: 2]. Since the first edition, a new Handbook has been issued for each Parliament, with only minor exceptions.

To 2002 there have been twenty-nine editions of the Parliamentary Handbook, which have documented the forty Parliaments up to and including the Parliament elected in 2001. The first six editions included biographies of all Members of Parliament since Federation, but by 1932 this had become impractical, and biographies were limited to the Parliament of the corresponding period. Over the years the Handbook has developed into a comprehensive reference work on many aspects of the Commonwealth Parliament and includes a considerable amount of information on the Australian political system, enhanced with additional maps and tables.

The Parliamentary Handbook online database, available on the Web, includes full biographies of all Members of Parliament elected since 1984.


 

About the Guide | Search | Browse | Help

 

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA, Canberra, ACT 2600, AUSTRALIA
Telephone +61 2 6262 1111; Facsimile +61 2 6257 1703;
Telephone Typewriter Number: 1800 026 372