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Parliamentary Handbooks - Australia (Commonwealth)

Historical Parliamentary Information

1901-

Parliamentary Library website including:

  • Governors-General since 1901
  • Vice-Presidents of the Executive Council
  • Chronology of Parliaments since 1901
  • Joint Sittings
  • Party Representation in Parliament
  • Senators and Members since 1901
  • Members of the Parliament who have served in both chambers
  • Longest serving members of the Parliament since 1901
  • Women in Parliament
  • Number of Women in Parliament
  • Prime Ministers since 1901
  • Leaders of the Opposition since 1901
  • Ministries since 1901
  • Cabinets Shadow
  • Ministries
  • Presidents/Deputy Presidents of the Senate since 1901
  • Speakers/Deputy Speakers of the House of Representatives since 1901
  • Permanent Heads of the Departments of the Parliament

Locate a copy of this publication:

Web Publications

Historical Parliamentary Information 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.


 

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