Parliamentary Handbooks - Australia (Commonwealth)
Parliamentary handbook and record of elections for the Commonwealth of Australia
1931-1953
The 8th edition (1931-1935) of the Parliamentary Handbook was published in 1936, the 9th (1931-1938) in 1938, the 10th (1938-1945) in 1945, and the 11th (1945-1953) in 1953.
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Parliamentary handbook and record of elections for the Commonwealth of Australia is a Previous Series 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.