Annual Report 2003–04
Output Group 3—Procedure Office
Outputs
- Provision of legislative drafting services to non-government senators.
- Provision of secretariat support to the Regulations and Ordinances Committee and Scrutiny of Bills Committee.
- Provision of parliamentary information services to the community.
- Provision of parliamentary education services to schools, teachers and students.
- Provision of policy advice and secretariat support for the maintenance and development of interparliamentary relations, including the Inter-Parliamentary Union, overseas conferences and delegations program for senators.
Administered item
- Support for the Citizenship Visits Program for school children visiting Parliament House.
| Performance indicators | Performance results |
|---|---|
| Quality | |
| The degree of satisfaction of the President, Deputy President, committee members and senators, as expressed through formal and informal feedback mechanisms, with the quality and timeliness of advice and support and the achievement of key tasks. | Formal and informal appraisal mechanisms continued to show that senators who used the services were satisfied with the quality of the services they received. |
| Amendments and bills are accurate and legally sound. | Amendments and bills continued to be drafted in accordance with the constitutional authority of the Senate, and accuracy was achieved to the satisfaction of senators. |
| Public information and parliamentary research is accurate, comprehensive and targeted for particular needs. | Evaluation of individual seminar and public information programs confirmed a high level of satisfaction with the quality and targeting of research and information. |
| Curriculum materials and Education Centre programs are consistent with national and state curriculum frameworks and standards. | Programs and materials continued to be delivered in accordance with national and state frameworks and standards. The work of the office continued to be an influence in the teaching of civics in Australia. |
| Timeliness | |
| Meetings held, documentation provided and reports produced within timeframes set by the Senate or the committee, as relevant. | All meetings of scrutiny committees were held as scheduled, with all documentation provided within timeframes set by the committees. |
| During sitting periods, amendments drafted as soon as possible after receipt of instructions. | Drafting was commenced as soon as possible after instructions for amendments were received; where instructions were provided in a timely fashion, amendments were returned to clients to enable further consideration of their requirements. |
| Information available on the internet and in publications is up to date and available as soon as practicable. | Internal timetables for the provision of information on the internet by the scrutiny committees and the legislative drafting services were met. |
Analysis
To assist the efficient management of the services which the Procedure Office provides to senators, the office is divided into six functional areas, as shown in Figure 13. The office is headed by the Clerk Assistant (Procedure), who, in addition to managing the office and providing procedural advisory and drafting services, including a large number of presentations and seminars on Senate procedure, also performs duties as a clerk at the table in the Senate chamber.
The average staffing level for the Procedure Office for the year remained constant at 30.
The cost of providing the services of this output group was $5.3 million, an increase of $0.8 million from 2002–03. The increase was due mainly to higher expenditure associated with a larger number of incoming and outgoing delegations.
| Executive and Legislative Drafting | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cleaver Elliott, Clerk Assistant | ||||
| Procedural advice and training Legislative drafting of amendments and private senators’ bills |
||||
| Biographical Dictionary | Parliamentary Education Office | Regulations and Ordinances Committee | Research Section | Scrutiny of Bills Committee |
| Ann Millar, Director | Ann Owner, Director | James Warmenhoven, Secretary | Wayne Hooper, Director | David Creed, Secretary to August
2003 Janice Paull Secretary from September 2003 (acting) |
| Production, editing and publication of The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate | Provision of parliamentary education services to schools, teachers and students | Secretariat, advisory and administrative support to the committee | Research into matters of parliamentary historical and constitutional significance | Secretariat, advisory and administrative support to the committee |
Legislative drafting and procedural advice
In providing procedural advice and legislative drafting services to non-government senators, we met senators’ requirements by:
- providing procedural advice to non-government senators, in response to requests and proactively as required
- providing procedural training and briefing to senators and senators’ staff, in response to requests and proactively as required
- providing accurate advice in the chamber and for use in the chamber, as required
- drafting amendments to bills for non-government senators, in response to instructions received from senators and senators’ staff
- drafting private senators’ bills for non-government senators, in response to instructions received from senators and senators’ staff.
We also prepared an average of eight procedural scripts per sitting day, an increase compared with the 2002–03 average of six per sitting day, often at short notice and in response to changing requirements. These scripts included notices of motion, terms of reference for committee inquiries, questions, and related documents for senators’ use in the chamber and in committees.
The Procedure Office drafted and processed all non-government amendments and private senators’ bills required by senators during 2003–04 for use both in the Senate and for the purpose of discussions and negotiations with interested constituents.
In response to a request from the Scrutiny of Bills committee, the Procedure Office prepared a manual to assist senators with the preparation of their private senators’ bills, Preparing Private Senators Bills, Explanatory Memoranda and Second Reading Speeches: A Guide for Senators. The office proposes to include advice on the preparation of legislative amendments in the next edition of the guide.
Factors affecting the legislative drafting workload of the office continued to be:
- the number of bills introduced in the Senate
- whether the bills caused senators to have amendments drafted
- the number of public policy issues emerging in Australian society which senators sought to address by private senators’ bills
- the extent of negotiation between senators and others on the wording of amendments
- the number of sitting days and the concentration of legislative activity on particular sitting days.
The numbers of amendments arising from the four most demanding bills, shown in Table 3, indicate the office’s high levels of activity during 2003–04. A comparative summary of the legislative drafting services provided by the office in 2003–04 and in the previous three years is provided in figures 14 and 15.
| Bill | No. of circulated amendments |
No. of sets of circulated amendments |
|---|---|---|
| Higher Education Support Bill 2003 | 245 |
6 |
| Environment and Heritage Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2002 | 123 |
9 |
| Sex Discrimination (Pregnancy and Work) Bill 2002 | 51 |
3 |
| Corporate Law Economic Reform Program (Audit Reform and Corporate Disclosure) Bill 2003 | 125 |
5 |
Figure 14 Legislative drafting services provided to non-government senators
Figure 15 Legislative drafting services provided to non-government senators—committee of the whole amendments
Providing procedural advice across a wide range of senators’ requirements continued to be a core aspect of the Procedure Office’s output. During the year, senators and senators’ staff frequently sought advice about the operation of various standing orders and the practices of the Senate, as well as advice on how to satisfy their requirements through the procedures of the Senate and its committees. This continuing high volume of work formed a major part of the Clerk Assistant’s responsibilities.
Legislative scrutiny committees
During the year, the office provided secretariat, research and administrative support to the Regulations and Ordinances Committee and the Scrutiny of Bills Committee.
The secretariats of the two scrutiny committees assisted the Regulations and Ordinances and Scrutiny of Bills committees to discharge their responsibilities in accordance with their standing orders, including through the publication of the required reports and digests (published every sitting week) and publications such as the Delegated Legislation Monitor (also published every sitting week) and the Disallowance Alert and Scrutiny of Regulations Alert (updated on‑line as required), and through the preparation of disallowance notices.
It is the responsibility of the two committees to examine all bills and legislative instruments within their jurisdiction, and the secretariats, assisted by their legal advisers, completed all the necessary administrative work to assist the committees to do so. The workload statistics show that the Regulations and Ordinances Committee staff processed 1,536 instruments during the reporting period (a decrease from 1,665 last year) and 129 responses from ministers (144 last year). In relation to the Scrutiny of Bills committee, the secretariat processed 206 bills during the reporting period (a decrease from 229 bills last year) and commented on 78 bills (102 bills last year).
Last year it was reported that the Scrutiny of Bills Committee secretariat had begun developing a database to improve administrative support for the committee. During the year, work progressed on the database, but it remains at a developmental stage.
Interjurisdictional activities
The secretariats of both scrutiny committees continued to serve as a centre of advice on legislative scrutiny matters for members of the wider public service as well as for staff of state and territory legislatures. During the year, the secretariats hosted visits by parliamentary officers from South Africa and Zimbabwe who are considering establishing similar scrutiny capacities in their parliaments. The initial visit by South African officers led to the visit of a further delegation from the South African Parliament later in the year.
Public information and parliamentary research
The Research Section continued to coordinate and deliver parliamentary information services for the community during the year, through lectures, exhibitions, seminars, publications, programs for visiting parliamentarians and officials, and internships and fellowships.
Biographical dictionary
The Biographical Dictionary Unit completed the publication and printing of Volume 2 of an extensive reference work on Australian senators, The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate. Volume 2 contains articles and comprehensive endnotes on senators who completed their terms of service between 1929 and 1962. The primary workload of the unit during the period under review was to successfully complete the exhaustive checking and editing associated with such a large and authoritative reference work.
The launch of Volume 2 was held on 16 June 2004. Early interest in the book has been promising, and Volume 1, which had a print run of 1,000, has almost sold out. The volumes continued to be sold in bookshops around Australia at a price of $76.95.
With Volume 2 completed, the unit accelerated its work on Volume 3, for which there will be 111 entries. Volume 3 will cover all senators who completed their terms of service in the period 1962 to 1983. Consistent with the unit’s experience of the first two volumes, it is expected that the volume will take approximately two years to write, and a further 18 months to be edited and published.
Lectures
Eight lectures in the Senate Occasional Lecture series were arranged by the output group in 2003–04, and attracted about 1,600 attendees. Several lectures commemorated anniversaries of historical events, such as the sesquicentenary of the Eureka Stockade and the centenaries of the establishment of the High Court and the granting of national suffrage to women.
The text of each lecture, together with a transcript of the question and answer session which followed it, was published in the department’s journal Papers on Parliament.
The lectures have become a prominent feature on the public lecture circuit, attracting a repeat audience which continues to be very appreciative of the lecture series.
Exhibitions
During the year, the output group continued to maintain and update a number of semipermanent exhibitions in public areas of Parliament House: For Peace, Order, and Good Government, commemorating the first federal parliament; The Story of Parliament, in the Members’ Hall of Parliament House; and the Women in Federal Parliament exhibition, which includes representation of all women who have served in the Commonwealth Parliament since Federation.
In July 2003, the department participated in a Parliament House Open Day by mounting some displays, including a number which illustrated the work of Senate committees, in the Members’ Hall. In the forthcoming year, we intend to prepare a series of short electronic displays to enhance existing exhibitions.
Commemorative projects
In recognition of the significance to Australian parliamentary history of women’s attainment of suffrage in federal elections, the Senate undertook a commemorative program which included:
- publication of sets of historic postcards, each set packaged in a wallet, which were distributed to all present and past female senators
- production of a poster reproduction of Dora Meeson’s ‘Trust the Women’ banner, which symbolises the political freedom of Australian women
- sponsorship of a number of lectures dealing with women and politics in the Senate Occasional Lecture program
- publication of a special ‘women’s issue’ of the Senate journal Papers on Parliament.
The Senate also marked the 150th anniversary of the Eureka Stockade, by hosting a lecture by Professor John Molony, and preparing a display board to be used at the Parliament House Open Day.
Programs for visiting parliamentarians and officials
The Australian Senate is seen as a role model for legislatures around Australia and the world, and is the focus of many visits from parliamentarians, parliamentary officers and others who wish to observe the Senate generally, or to enhance their knowledge of particular aspects of its work. During the year, seven separate attachment programs were arranged for individuals and groups from legislatures in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Lesotho, Thailand, Tonga and Zambia.
The Department of the Senate and the Department of the House of Representatives jointly sponsored the Inter-Parliamentary Study Program, held in September 2003. The program, involving 16 senior parliamentary officials from 13 countries, provided a comprehensive introduction to Australian parliamentary systems, practice and administration.
Seminars and briefings
The department continued to offer a range of seminars on the work of the Senate for Australian Government public servants, with a total of 965 people participating in 32 seminars. The slight reduction in numbers of participants and seminars conducted (down from 1,209 participants and 35 seminars in 2002–03) reflected increased demands on seminar presenters, whose primary responsibility is to provide services to senators.
While a majority of seminars attracted participants from a range of departments, and took place at Parliament House, others were tailored to meet the needs of particular institutions, where they were held in-house. Members of senators’ staff were invited to participate in these seminars free of charge, and new staffers frequently availed themselves of the opportunity. Seminars were arranged for students in the Australian National Internships Program in September 2002 and March 2003.
In addition to formal seminars, briefings ranging in duration from one hour to half a day were arranged for a variety of individuals, such as academics and doctoral candidates, and groups representing organisations, including private companies, the Wisconsin Rural Leadership Program and the departments of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Defence, and Veterans’ Affairs.
Publications
As foreshadowed in last year’s report, in October 2003 the output group published a book, Platypus and Parliament: The Australian Senate in Theory and Practice. The author—Dr Stanley Bach, formerly of the United States of America’s Congressional Research Service in Washington—wrote the book during his Senate Fellowship, from October 2002 to March 2003. The Research Section edited, designed, typeset and marketed the book.
The book has been well received in legal and political science circles and was joint winner of the inaugural Richard Baker Prize for writing about the Senate (see below). The book has already become a prescribed text in several universities, and half the stock was sold in the six months following its launch.
Work continues on the historical series, Business of the Senate. The first volume, covering 1901–06, was published some years ago; the second volume, covering 1906–10, was completed in June. This series will ultimately document the work of the Senate up until 1970, when the modern Business of the Senate commenced.
The Senate Daily Summary, a summary of each day’s Senate chamber and committee proceedings, is now distributed solely as an electronic document. On the days it is produced, it is emailed to senators and their staff.
A range of publications publicising the Senate and the parliamentary process— including a Senate brochure, the Senate Briefs series, and the department’s journal Papers on Parliament—are issued to the public free of charge. A brochure, distributed in the main foyer through Visitor Services, and through members of parliament directly to their constituents, is issued as a joint publication with the departments of the House of Representatives and Parliamentary Services. A multilingual brochure, offering information on the parliament and Parliament House in Mandarin, Japanese, German and French, is now also available.
Information inquiries
The department prepared responses to requests for information about the Senate from a range of overseas publications, such as The Parliamentarian and the journal of the Society of Clerks at the Table. Questionnaires on parliamentary practice were completed for the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Many members of the Australian community also made inquiries, by phone, letter or email, which were answered promptly or referred to other information sources.
Richard Baker Senate Prize
The output group administers the Richard Baker Senate Prize, the establishment of which was reported on in last year’s report. The prize, valued at $3,000, was initiated by the President of the Senate, Senator the Honourable Paul Calvert, and is offered annually for the best essay, article, book or piece of journalism (in any medium) on the Australian Senate. The inaugural prize was awarded in October 2003, jointly to Verona Burgess, journalist, for a collection of articles about the Senate published in The Canberra Times, and to Dr Stanley Bach for his book Platypus and Parliament: The Australian Senate in Theory and Practice.
Australian National Internships Program
Since 1993 the Parliament has worked in cooperation with the Australian National Internships Program at the Australian National University (ANU) to place interns with parliamentarians and parliamentary committees and departments. During the year a total of 44 interns were placed in Parliament House, of whom 24 were placed with senators, Senate committees or joint committees.
Senate Fellowship
The Senate Fellowship program enables scholars to have access to the department and to Parliament House to conduct their research. The program is virtually cost-free to the department, as no fees or allowances for fares and other expenses are provided to the fellowship holders.
Professor John Uhr and Professor Ian Marsh, senior fellows in the Political Science Program at the Research School of Social Sciences, ANU, were appointed as Senate Fellows in 2002 and continued as such during 2003–04.
Parliamentary education services
During 2003–04, the Parliamentary Education Office (PEO) continued discharging its responsibility of providing an extensive program of education about parliament and about citizenship for schools and their communities, as well as assisting members and senators to provide information about the parliamentary process to their constituents. Outreach programs conducted by the PEO provided a range of accessible and responsive services to clients who would not normally visit Parliament House, meeting the needs and expectations of PEO clients including Technical and Further Education colleges, universities, and students from non-English speaking backgrounds.
Programs
Among the achievements of PEO programs during the year were the following.
- The annual Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Constitutional Convention, a joint venture between the PEO and the ACT Legislative Assembly and the ACT Education Department, continued to develop to accommodate increasing numbers of year 11 students.
- The Education Centre continued to develop its programs and role-playing scripts. This development was enhanced by a review of the centre’s operations during the last six months of 2003.
- The PEO website continued to be reorganised to improve client access, with the development of a section called Kidsview to meet the needs of primary school students.
- The sale and implementation in schools of the PEO’s Cockatoo Island resource continued, with sales totalling 400 resource packages over the 12‑month period from July 2003.
- PEO presenters continued, as part of their professional development, to improve their skills as trainers of teachers, by training teachers in the field on how to use PEO strategies to teach about parliament in schools and universities.
- Facsimiles of the Despatch Box were produced for use as an educational resource by members and senators.
The PEO worked closely with the National Museum of Australia to produce Talkback Classroom, a stimulating program for senior secondary school students. More than 700 students were involved during the year, generating strong interest from school communities and parliamentarians. The program provides students with a series of briefings on the structure and operations of the Parliament and government of Australia, and opportunities to interview distinguished guests in front of large studio audiences. During the year, guests included Senator Aden Ridgeway, The Canberra Times cartoonist Geoff Pryor, the Honourable Carmen Lawrence MP, the Honourable Larry Anthony MP, and Mark Latham MP. The program is recorded, broadcast by ABC Radio and used by teachers in classes across Australia.
Rotary Adventure in Citizenship, a successful annual joint venture between the PEO, two Canberra Rotary clubs and the National Capital Authority, was again held. More than 50 year 11 students from across Australia were sponsored by Rotary to take part in a week-long citizenship program run by the PEO. Emphasis was placed on experiencing parliament through role-play and debate on current issues, to encourage delegates to become active citizens.
In addition, several successful in-house programs, some of which were reported on last year, were delivered by the PEO. They included role plays for school groups; sessions of the National Youth Science Forum;Heywire (a program for rural youth run by the ABC); and Little Lunch Sittings (programs on how parliament works, tailored for adult groups). The PEO also provided week-long immersion fellowship programs for young professionals, including community leaders, teachers and journalists.
The PEO devised a 16‑page newspaper supplement, Peeling Back Parliament, providing for students, and their teachers, a learning resource full of diagrams and challenging activities. The supplement was published in The Canberra Times in May 2004. The quarterly Profiler produced by the PEO became a popular newsletter for schools, educational organisations and parliamentarians.
Professional networks
During 2003–04 the PEO continued to forge strong and useful networks across Australia. To further this aim, we:
- attended the Parliamentary Education Office Directors’ Conference, held in Perth in October 2003
- attended the launching of our Cockatoo Island resource in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly by the Speaker, the Honourable Loraine Braham, in March 2004
- collaborated with members of the Australian Association of Environmental Education to create civics programs for young children, to be held in botanic gardens and environmental centres using a ‘parliament of birds’.
Administered item
The Citizenship Visits Program (CVP) provides subsidies for school groups travelling more than 1,000 kilometres to Canberra to visit the PEO Education Centre.
Figure 16 shows the numbers of students who visited the PEO Education Centre and the numbers of students who received the CVP subsidy in the years 1999 to 2004. Figure 17 gives the same information for school groups.
Figure 16 Students who visited the PEO Education Centre, 1999 to 2004
Figure 17 Groups that visited the PEO Education Centre, 1999 to 2004
The total number of school groups visiting the PEO Education Centre over the financial year is held at a manageable 2,250 groups (or about 79,000 students, which includes CVP students). As Figures 16 and 17 show, the proportion of CVP students and groups has grown steadily over the past five years. Any further increases in the numbers of CVP students in future years will force corresponding reductions in the numbers of non‑CVP students able to participate in Education Centre programs, unless the PEO’s budget allocation is increased to accommodate extra students.
In recent years, pressure on Education Centre accommodation and the PEO’s budget has led to the establishment of a waiting list. There were 2,885 students on the waiting list for 2003 and 2,985 for 2004, all of whom missed out on an Education Centre program, but none of whom were eligible CVP students.
Interparliamentary relations
The department funded the attendances of senators and members from the Australian Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) at the 109th IPU Assembly, held in Geneva, Switzerland, in September–October 2003, and the 110th IPU Assembly, held in Mexico City in April 2004. The Senior Clerk of Committees served as Secretary to the Australian IPU delegation.
At these assemblies, members of the Australian delegation contributed to all debates and in some instances were elected to chair or to participate in the work of drafting committees that prepared resolutions for the IPU to adopt.
In addition to its support of IPU activities, the department provided secretaries to three parliamentary delegations conducting bilateral visits to Latvia, France, and Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The delegation to France also visited several of the European Institutions in France and Belgium, including the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Council of Europe, the European Court of Auditors, the European Court of Justice, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers–Europe. The secretaries were experienced officers, selected from across the department. They provided administrative and research support at all stages of the delegations’ visits, including during the preparation of reports for tabling in the Parliament.
Evaluation
Much of the work of the output group involves frequent and direct contact with senators and senators’ staff. That contact provides the mechanism for continual appraisal of the work of the output group, as well as opportunities to respond to changing requirements.
Another major formal means of evaluating the work of the output group is the biennial survey of senators’ satisfaction with the services provided by the department, due to be conducted next in 2005. As reported last year, the survey conducted in 2003 revealed high levels of satisfaction with the services provided by Output Group 3.
Formal and informal mechanisms available to the output group—such as letters, emails, telephone calls, the seminar evaluation forms completed by every participant in every seminar, and direct advice from senators, their staff and members of the public—indicated high levels of satisfaction with the services provided by the group.
During 2003–04, the legislative drafting area continued to be subjected at short notice to demands for large volumes of legislative drafting, across the full range of legislative responsibilities of the Australian Parliament. In the course of the year, legislative drafting staff continued to receive many telephone calls and emails expressing thanks and appreciation for their advisory and drafting services.
Feedback received during the year, mainly from the parliamentary guides service, indicated that visitors to Parliament House were continuing to express appreciation of, and interest in, the various exhibitions arranged and maintained by the department.
Feedback from senators, subscribers, members of the public and staff of the parliamentary guides service indicated that Senate publications continued to meet client needs in terms of their content, format, accessibility and timeliness. The Senate Daily Summary continued to be the most frequently used document on the Senate website. Appraisal from users of the summary—in ministers’ offices, government departments, academia, embassies and the media—indicated that it was highly valued as a convenient way of keeping track of the work of the Senate.
The department’s journal, Papers on Parliament, continued to be widely read and cited in other publications.
Public response, as measured by attendance, requests for transcripts and formal surveys, indicated that the Senate Occasional Lecture series continued to meet a demand for authoritative information and comment on parliamentary, constitutional and historical matters.
Visiting parliamentarians and officials universally indicated, verbally or in writing, their gratitude for and satisfaction with the programs arranged for them.
Questionnaires were distributed to all participants in the Senate seminar program. The responses were overwhelmingly positive, and managers of the program took care to be responsive to any suggestions for change which appeared in them.
| On the Senate Daily Summary … | ‘I find the SDS link so useful—especially when you are in the electorate office and a bit cut off from the action.’ (a senator’s staffer) |
|---|---|
| ‘The report is very valuable for outsiders who do not have the time to keep up with the legislative process …’ (an academic political scientist) | |
| On occasional lectures … | ‘I have been attending these lectures for nearly 10 years now, and I have found them instructive, enjoyable and stimulating. The diverse range of speakers is a bonus.’ |
| On the seminar program … | ‘The participants all commented on how interesting and worthwhile this session was. I would be grateful if you would consider doing a similar session for some of our estimates witnesses.’ (a departmental training coordinator) |
| ‘An excellent and worthwhile program. It will all come in handy for our clients …’ (a private‑sector participant) | |
| ‘We haven’t stopped talking about all of the things that we didn’t know were possible and how much use they will be to our clients.’ (a private‑sector participant). | |
| ‘I gained a huge amount of information from the seminar and have recommended my colleagues attend.’ (a senior public servant) | |
| On the Parliamentary Education Office programs … | ‘[We] now have the tools knowledge and confidence to engage and educate … students about parliament …’ (a teacher visiting the Education Centre) |
| ‘This trip changed my life—I used to think that parliament was a load of old men talking all day but now I know that it’s much more interesting!’ (a Talkback Classroom participant) | |
| ‘I felt informed without being made to feel ignorant …’ (a Little Lunch Sitting participant) | |
| ‘[Cockatoo Island] captures young learners with its warmth, innovation and uniquely Australian flavour.’ (a classroom teacher) | |
| ‘I would like to start by saying what a great job the Parliamentary Education Office does … The staff are very hardworking and the programs they run really enrich the kids.’ (Mr Anthony Smith MP, while taking part in a debate on a private member’s motion regarding the parliamentary education programs, during which several members acknowledged the importance and quality of the programs, in the House of Representatives on 31 May 2004.) |
As foreshadowed in last year’s report, an evaluation of the Education Centre was conducted, as was an evaluation of Talkback Classroom. The evaluation of the Education Centre led to a revision of the scripts used in the role plays conducted in the centre. The evaluation of Talkback Classroom resulted in improved coordination between the PEO and its partners in the program, the National Museum of Australia and ER Productions, regarding the way the program is managed and funded. Because 2003–04 was a non-survey year, it was particularly useful to receive feedback on the work and performance of the PEO. Further program evaluations—and evaluations, under the performance communication scheme, of the performance of PEO presenters—are planned for the next reporting period.
In all cases in which the department provided secretaries to parliamentary delegations, delegates expressed satisfaction with the support and advice provided by those officers, most commonly in remarks made in debate on the tabling of the parliamentary delegation reports. In every case, reports were drafted and tabled in a timely manner and to the satisfaction of the delegation.
Individual performance was also evaluated under the performance communication scheme, as required by the department’s certified agreement, and all Procedure Office staff were assessed as being ‘effective or better’.
Significant changes in functions and services
There were no significant changes to the functions of, or the services provided by, the output group during the year.
Factors, events and trends influencing performance
Extensive use continued to be made of the legislative drafting and procedural advice services of the Procedure Office. As is evident from figures 14 and 15, drafting workload has increased in the course of the Fortieth Parliament, a trend that is consistent with experience of previous parliaments. The office continued to maximise the efficiency of its drafting services through close coordination with other areas of the department, particularly the Printing and Desktop Publishing Subsection and the Legislation and Documents Section of the Table Office, which provided important technical assistance with the drafting of amendments and bills.
The office continued to receive valuable support from participants in the Working in the Senate (WISE) program, who assisted with legislative drafting and related research work during their placements with the Procedure Office.
It was reported last year that training of staff to assist with the legislative drafting workload generated by non-government senators had commenced. This training continued during 2003–04 and, as a result, the number of staff available to assist senators with their legislative drafting requirements increased.
The demand for enrolments in the department’s seminars for public servants and other groups continued at a high level. However, it has become difficult to schedule sufficient seminars to meet the demand, because the presenters used in the seminars are departmental officers with other demands on their time. In order to maintain the high quality of these seminars, only experienced and trained presenters can be used. In recent years the number of departmental officers trained and available to work as presenters has more than doubled, but supply has nonetheless proved barely adequate to keep up with demand.
Performance outlook
The Procedure Office will continue to provide its broad range of services and to maintain service levels at the high standards expected by senators. The office will do this by retaining and, where necessary, recruiting high-performing staff who understand the requirements of senators. The office will provide training to its own and senators’ staff, and procedural briefings for senators themselves, to assist senators in their work in the Senate and its committees.
The office expects that the existing high demand for training programs for public servants and visiting parliamentary officials will continue. The office will develop and maintain training programs to cope with the demand.
The Biographical Dictionary Unit will focus on preparing Volume 3 and marketing Volume 2 of The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate.
The Parliamentary Education Office will continue to develop and enhance parliamentary education curriculum materials, including phase 2 of Kidsview (an interactive web page), a theatrical performance interpreting the Australian Constitution for school students, and role plays for use in the Education Centre.
