What are Parliamentary Papers?
Parliamentary Papers are documents that are presented to the Houses of Parliament and are ordered by one or both of the Houses to be printed. They include reports from government departments, Royal Commissions, committees of enquiry and other documents. Documents that are presented to Parliament but not ordered to be printed do not become Parliamentary Papers, and access to them is only available from the Parliament itself. Parliamentary Papers are published by the Commonwealth and most State and Territory governments.
Some examples of the type of material which can be found in Parliamentary Papers:
- From the Commonwealth: Commonwealth Royal Commission's report on sites for the seat of Government, with appendices and plans. 1903
- From Victoria: Immigration, copy of dispatch from the Secretary to Her Majesty's Colonial Island and Emigration Commissioners relative to the difficulty of obtaining a suitable class of emigrants. 15th February, 1856.
- From South Australia: J.M. Stuart's exploration, 1860. Diary of J.M. Stuart, Esq., of an extraordinary trip towards the north west coast of Australia, during the period from 2nd March to 3rd September, 1860. 7th June 1861. Includes detailed maps of the areas covered.
Various indexes to papers are published annually, after each session or cumulatively.
Many Parliamentary papers, especially from recent years, can be found in library catalogues by searching for them by title.
Since the advent of the Internet, many documents and reports that are presented to Parliament are also made available, sometimes temporarily, on the websites of Government Departments. See Australian Government: Selected Websites for help in locating these websites.
Browse Parliamentary Papers by State