Annual Report 2005–06
PDF
1063 KBOutput Group 2—Table Office
Corporate governance
| Outputs | ||
|---|---|---|
| Provision of programming and
procedural support to the Senate. Processing of legislation and maintenance of related information systems. Preparation and maintenance of the record of proceedings of the Senate, records of current and outstanding business, and statistical information on the business of the Senate. Processing of tabled documents and maintenance of safe custody of Senate records, and provision of a document distribution and inquiries service to senators, staff, government departments and the public. Provision of secretariat support to the Appropriations and Staffing Committee, Selection of Bills Committee and Publications committees. |
||
| 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. Key business documents are accurate and of a high standard. |
Informal feedback and direct contact
between senators and staff indicated continued high levels
of satisfaction, consistent with the findings of the 2005 survey
of senators. Business documents remained of a high standard, with none shown to contain significant inaccuracies. |
| Timeliness | Order of Business finalised and distributed prior to sittings and advice prepared proactively or as required. | The Order of Business was
distributed in advance of all sittings. Advice was given proactively or as required. |
| Journals of the Senate for the previous day and Notice Paper for the current day available prior to sittings; statistical and other documentation available as required or in accordance with predetermined requirements. | The Journals of the Senate and the Notice
Paper were available as required. The Dynamic Red was updated in a timely manner during each sitting day. Statistical summaries were published after each sitting week, and comprehensive statistics were published on the internet after each sitting fortnight. Business of the Senate was tabled twice, in accordance with agreed timeframes. Requests for statistics were responded to promptly. |
|
| Running sheets available as soon as practicable; proposed amendments distributed in accordance with requirements; schedules of amendments and prints of bills available in accordance with predetermined requirements. | Running sheets were available for
use in the chamber as required. Government amendments were distributed as required. Schedules of amendments, prints of Senate bills and legislative support documents were available as required. |
|
| All inquiries answered and documents stored or distributed on a timely basis. | All documents were distributed in a
timely manner. All inquiries were responded to and 95 per cent were completed within five minutes. |
|
| Meetings held, documentation provided and reports produced within timeframes set by the Senate or the committee, as relevant. | Committee meetings were held, and documents and reports provided, within agreed timeframes. | |
| Quantity | As required to facilitate proceedings; quantities meet predetermined distribution requirements or are accessible electronically or both. | Feedback indicated continued high
levels of satisfaction among senators with the provision of
documents by the Table Office. All distribution and electronic publishing targets were met. |
Analysis
The Table Office is divided into three sections, as outlined in Figure 5. It is led by the Clerk Assistant (Table), who also performs duties as a clerk at the table in the Senate chamber, as do the two directors.
Executive and
Programming |
|
|---|---|
Richard
Pye, Clerk Assistant Procedural advice Business programming Production of the Senate Order of Business Secretariat services to the Selection of Bills Committee |
|
| Legislation and Documents Rosa Ferranda, Director |
Journals and Notice Paper Neil Bessell, Director |
| Processing of legislation and preparation
of supporting documentation Processing and custody of Senate records Inquiries and document distribution services Secretariat services to the Senate and Joint Publications committees |
Production of the Notice Paper, the Journals
of the Senate and the Dynamic Red Collection and dissemination of statistical information Processing of questions on notice and petitions Secretariat services to the Appropriations and Staffing Committee |
Each of the three sections contributed to the department’s outcome by working towards the following intermediate outcomes:
- effective support for the Senate chamber
- public awareness of the Senate and its work
- effective support for Senate committees.
During 2005–06, we provided effective support for the Senate chamber by:
- providing procedural and programming advice and documentation to facilitate and expedite chamber proceedings
- processing legislation and producing documentation to assist in the legislative process
- preparing and publishing both formal and informal records of the business of the Senate
- processing and archiving tabled papers
- providing inquiries and document distribution services.
We worked towards increasing public awareness of the Senate and its work:
- through our inquiries and document distribution services
- through the provision and further development of key information resources, including our new service, the Dynamic Red
- by progressing the work of the microfilming/digital imaging project, which aims to provide online access to all documents tabled in the Senate since 1901
- by our continued contributions to the seminar program administered by the Procedure Office (see the report on Output Group 3) and other training and development programs.
Finally, we gave effective support for Senate committees by providing secretariat and administrative support to a collection of domestic committees and by liaising with Senate and joint committee secretariats to facilitate interaction between the chamber and those committees.
The cost of the Table Office in providing procedural and administrative support for the conduct of Senate business was $2.4 million, a small reduction on the cost incurred in 2004–05. The transition from the microfilming project (which has largely been wrapped up) to the digital imaging project (which to date has chiefly incurred set-up and infrastructure costs) led to a reduction in expenses. Expenditure in this area will increase, however, in 2006–07 as the project proper gathers momentum.
Workload and staffing
Although we try to anticipate requirements for advice, statistics and documentary support for the Senate, much of the work of the office is necessarily reactive. Our workload is determined largely by the sittings of the Senate and the volume and type of Senate business. Specific factors include:
- the days and hours of the sittings of the Senate, the nature of the proceedings undertaken in the Senate, and the scheduling of those proceedings
- the legislative workload, including the number of bills passed, the number and complexity of amendments to bills and the complexity of negotiations between the Houses on disputed legislation
- the number of documents tabled
- the number and complexity of questions and notices from senators
- the number and complexity of inquiries and requests for information from our clients.
Recent reports have noted a decline in the annual number of sitting days below the long‑term average of 70 days. The Senate sat for only 41 days during 2004–05, due to an election break. This rose to 58 sitting days in 2005–06, but that figure remains low for a non‑election year. The sittings were also distributed unevenly, with 36 sitting days in the first half of the year and 23 in the second. This created a ‘light sitting pattern’ in the second half of the year.
As has been noted before, a light sitting pattern concentrates a normal parliamentary workload into fewer sitting days. At all times the office remained staffed to meet peak work periods.
The full‑time equivalent staffing level for the Table Office during the year was 15.8, down marginally from last year’s average of 16.3. As in previous reporting periods, we left some positions vacant during long adjournments and lighter sitting periods, and balanced tasks between sitting and non‑sitting periods, to achieve modest savings. Modest savings were also produced by senior officers undertaking extended duties during the filling of vacancies in the Clerk’s, Table and Procedure offices.
The Director, Journals and Notice Paper, continued to perform duties as Secretary to the Australian Inter‑Parliamentary Union Delegation, funded under Output Group 3.
Programming and procedural support
We provided programming and procedural support for the operation of the chamber, and met the needs of senators and others for accurate and timely documentation and assistance, by:
- providing procedural advice to the Leader of the Government in the Senate, the Manager of Government Business in the Senate and other ministers, government senators, party whips and committee chairs, in response to requests and proactively as required
- preparing an average of 18 procedural scripts each sitting day—comparable with the 2004–05 average of 20 per sitting day—for use in the chamber
- providing advice in the chamber as required
- preparing a draft Order of Business (or daily program) for briefing whips’ meetings in advance of each sitting day and publishing the final Order of Business before the sittings commenced on all sitting days
- maintaining the roster of temporary chairs of committees at all times
- providing a broadcasting captioning service for Senate proceedings
- liaising with committee chairs and secretariats to facilitate interaction between the Senate and its committees.
We also continued to make administrative arrangements for the presentation of documents and reports by ministers, the Auditor‑General and committees on days when the Senate was not sitting. In February 2006 we prepared a revised edition of the Standing orders and other orders of the Senate, incorporating changes made to 9 December 2005.
An important role of the Table Office is the provision of advice to the Manager of Government Business and other senators to assist the efficient conduct of the business of the Senate. During the year, we provided advice on a range of matters, including temporary orders of the Senate, the effect of equally divided votes in the consideration of legislation, the hours of meeting and the routine of business, and procedural options for handling certain bills and motions. Advice was also provided to, and in relation to, the Selection of Bills Committee as required.
We provided advice in response to requests and proactively, as required. All documents were produced on or ahead of time to high standards, and none was shown to be inaccurate.
Legislation
We responded to the legislative requirements of the Senate and the needs of senators and others for related information by:
- processing all bills considered in the chamber, meeting accuracy and timeliness standards in all cases
- preparing legislative documents, including procedural scripts, running sheets, schedules of amendments, third reading prints and messages
- recording the progress of legislation
- preparing assent and Act prints, assent messages and proclamations
- maintaining information systems to assist in processing legislation and providing online access to legislative documents.
To the extent that trends can be discerned, legislative activity was higher than in the previous reporting period (an election year, with far fewer sitting days than this year), but did not return to levels experienced in recent non‑election years.
The charts in Figure 6 present examples of the level of legislative activity in recent years and the effect this has had on our work. When compared with averages in recent non‑election years, they show that:
- the number of bills considered by the Senate and processed by the Table Office returned to average levels
- the number of amendments circulated and moved returned to average levels, as reflected in the number of running sheets we prepared
- fewer amendments were agreed, meaning we prepared fewer schedules of amendments (but with more pages) and far fewer third reading prints
- more bills were initiated in the Senate, requiring more administrative and processing work in, for instance, producing assent prints of those bills.
Figure 6 Senate legislative activity
Legislation considered by the Senate
Amendments moved and agreed in the Senate
Note: The figures for amendments also include requests for amendments and proposals to omit clauses or items from bills.
Running sheets
Government legislation introduced in the Senate
The government party majority had an effect on the legislative decisions of the chamber, which influenced the nature of our work. As an extreme example, only four non‑government amendments were agreed to during the year—a fraction of the usual number. (Last year, of about 200 amendments agreed to, 120 were non‑government amendments.) This meant there was little disagreement between the chambers, a factor that significantly reduced both the number and complexity of schedules and messages we prepared.
Other business requirements remained at usual levels. For instance, we produced 158 messages relating to the passage of bills (153 in 2004–05) and 22 messages of an administrative nature (21 in 2004–05).
Third reading prints, schedules of amendments and assent prints of bills accurately reflected the decisions of the Senate, and all deadlines for the use of those documents were met.
Bills Lists and Daily Bills Updates detailing the progress of legislation were produced in response to the sittings and distributed in accordance with agreed timeframes, and all bills and related documents were made available online.
Formal and informal records of business
We met the needs of senators and others for accurate and timely documentation and information by:
- producing and publishing the Notice Paper and the Journals of the Senate, and providing procedural advice on the contents of those documents
- updating the Dynamic Red, an informal guide to Senate proceedings, during each sitting day
- compiling and publishing statistical information relating to the Senate, including Business of the Senate, the Senate Statistical Summary and the Questions on Notice Summary
- responding to requests from senators and others for statistics on the work of the Senate
- maintaining information systems to assist in preparing and publishing Table Office documents.
Formal records
The Notice Paper, the formal agenda of Senate proceedings, continued to provide essential information on the current and future business of the Senate and on committee matters. Similarly, the Journals of the Senate continued to provide an accurate and comprehensive record of proceedings. These documents were published promptly for each sitting day.
Printed Notice Papers, averaging 57 pages, were published before each sitting day. The full Notice Paper, averaging 156 pages, was also maintained and published daily on the internet and the ParlInfo database. The average figures for the previous reporting period were 59 pages for the printed document and 134 pages for the online version. The Notice Paper increases in size during the life of each parliament, as unfinished business accumulates and the number of unanswered questions on notice increases.
Proof journals were made available online shortly after each adjournment of the Senate, and distributed in hard copy the next day. In 2005–06, we produced 58 proof journals at an average of just over 26 pages per journal, which is the same as last year’s average.
We produced final journals and bound volumes promptly, after thoroughly checking the material, and made minor savings by reducing the number of bound volumes produced.
Informal records and statistics
We enhanced our information services by further developing the Dynamic Red, an online tool to monitor Senate proceedings during each sitting day. In May 2006 the Dynamic Red was placed on the internet, making it available to government departments and agencies and the general public.
Statistical summaries of business conducted by the Senate were produced at the conclusion of each sitting week. The twice‑yearly compilation of statistics, Business of the Senate, was presented to the Senate in accordance with agreed timeframes. The enhanced online version of these statistics was updated after each block of sittings, providing timely access to the most commonly sought statistics on the work of the Senate.
Requests for statistics from senators and other clients were met within agreed timeframes.
There was significant interest throughout the year in statistics that revealed changes in Senate business patterns and outcomes following the advent of the government party majority from the beginning of the reporting period. This required us to compile some new sets of comparative statistics relating, for instance, to:
- the use of ‘guillotine’ motions in relation to urgent bills
- voting and debating patterns on various types of motions
- the outcomes of proposals for committee references
- the asking of questions at question time.
Some of these statistics were added to the department’s website. At the end of the reporting period we were reviewing the statistics collection in the expectation of continued interest in this area.
Questions on notice
We continued to provide procedural advice about questions on notice, as required.
Questions lodged by senators were edited for consistency with standing orders and published in the Notice Paper for the next sitting day. During non‑sitting weeks questions were forwarded to ministers’ offices and departments, and the online Notice Paper was updated weekly to ensure timely publication.
Figure 7 shows the number of questions placed on notice in each of the past six financial years. During 2005–06, senators placed 1,106 questions on notice. This number is comparable to those reported for the previous two financial years, and shows that the electoral cycle did not have a significant impact on senators’ use of this important accountability procedure. All questions were processed accurately and within agreed timeframes.
We also processed and circulated answers received from ministers, meeting agreed timeframes and Hansard publishing deadlines.
Statistics were collated and published in the Questions on Notice Summary, which was presented to the Senate in accordance with agreed timeframes. Statistical information on questions on notice was also provided promptly to senators and other clients as requested.
Petitions
Figure 7 also shows the numbers of petitions lodged in each of the past six financial years. During 2005–06, senators presented 136 petitions from 125,574 signatories. All petitions that conformed to the standing orders were processed promptly and presented in the Senate on the first sitting day after their receipt.
Figure 7 Questions on notice and petitions
No. of questions on notice
No. of petitions
Documents and inquiries
We processed all documents presented to the Senate during 2005–06 and recorded their details in the Journals of the Senate and the Index of Papers Presented to the Parliament. Copies of documents were made available throughout Parliament House and publicly through our inquiries and document distribution services.
The original documents were added to the records of the Senate, which we continued to maintain. The record archives include all documents presented to the Senate since its first meeting in 1901.
The documents and inquiries workload depends upon the number of documents presented. During 2005–06, about 6,700 documents were presented, compared to 5,700 in 2004–05.
The operation of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003 continued to have a significant effect on the documents workload. The volume of instruments tabled during 2005–06 remained at the high levels reported for 2004–05, as did the time and effort required to process them for tabling and archiving.
All processing and distribution requirements were met. For example, staff continued to distribute government documents to senators’ Parliament House offices, usually within one hour of documents being presented, or within one hour of receipt of a request, in accordance with agreed timeframes.
More than 7,330 inquiries were recorded during 2005–06, as indicated in Figure 8. Although full staffing in the inquiries area was not maintained during non‑sitting weeks, we maintained our excellent response record, as indicated in Figure 9.
Figure 8 Inquiries—number recorded
Figure 9 Inquiries—percentage dealt with within five minutes
Digital imaging project
The Table Office microfilming project commenced in 1994–95 with the aim of conserving and filming all original documents tabled in the Senate since 1901. We reported last year on the tenth anniversary of the project and on the filming, indexing and archiving of all papers tabled between 1901 and 2001. In 2005–06 the project entered a new phase. Preliminary action is now underway to convert the microfilm to digital images, and digital imaging of documents tabled since the beginning of the Fortieth Parliament (in 2002) commenced in August 2005.
Secretariat support for various committees
During the year, we provided secretariat support for all meetings and reports of the Selection of Bills Committee, the Standing Committee on Appropriations and Staffing, and the Senate and Joint Publications committees.
All meetings were held, and documents provided, within agreed timeframes.
Factors, events and trends influencing performance
Factors influencing workload and staffing levels are set out above.
Information technology issues continued to be of considerable importance in the Table Office, though no major problems were encountered during 2005–06.
Because of the Parliament’s reliance on the computer infrastructure provided by the Department of Parliamentary Services, we have been involved in a number of interdepartmental projects to improve the IT systems that support the work of the Senate chamber. At the end of the reporting period, however, it appeared that some of these projects had stalled in the face of shifting priorities in the Department of Parliamentary Services. One much delayed project, relating to business continuity, appeared likely to reach a satisfactory conclusion early in 2006–07. The prospects for another—a crucial project to update the online management of, and access to, legislative documents—were less certain.
Evaluation
The principal medium for evaluating our services is the biennial survey of senators’ satisfaction with the services provided by the department. As reported previously, the survey has consistently revealed high levels of satisfaction among senators with the advice, documents and services of the Table Office. The 2005 survey did not identify any major concern.
The 2005 survey report confirmed senators’ appreciation of the department’s efforts to make more information available online. The response of senators and their staff to the introduction and further enhancement of the Dynamic Red has been particularly pleasing. With the Dynamic Red now available to all government departments and agencies and the general public, it is hoped that this service will enhance understanding of the procedures and work of the Senate.
We also monitor our own performance—for example, by keeping track of response times for inquiries. This monitoring indicates that the high level of service noted in recent surveys continued during 2005–06.
Much of our work involves frequent direct contact with senators, their staff and other clients. This presents an ongoing opportunity for feedback on our services. Informal feedback continued to be very positive.
Performance outlook
We will continue to provide effective procedural, practical and documentary support to senators and to the Senate chamber. Demand for these services will depend largely on the sittings of the Senate and the business it conducts. Workloads are expected to be largely comparable with those in 2005–06. We will continue to review the services we provide and to respond to feedback, making improvements where practicable.
We will continue to contribute to interdepartmental IT projects during the next reporting period and, in particular, to the joint project to redevelop the systems which manage and make available online versions of legislative documents. We are hopeful that those systems will be redeveloped during the year. Further delays in redevelopment will require continued resort to unproductive ‘workarounds’ in the management of legislative documents and will prolong instability in key parliamentary information systems.
After the preliminary action taken in 2005–06, we expect the conversion of microfilm of tabled papers to digital images to begin in 2006–07. It is intended that digital images of tabled papers will progressively become available to users through a web‑based repository during the year. Conversion of the 1901 to 2001 microfilm archive is expected to take a little over three years, at the end of which users will have online access to most documents tabled in the Senate since Federation.
Initial feedback on the external version of the Dynamic Red indicates that the service has been well received. We will continue to monitor feedback during 2006–07. In a related move, a decision was made in June 2006 to transfer responsibility for the Senate Daily Summary to the Table Office. We see the further development of these documents as an opportunity to revitalise our publications and increase public awareness of the work of the Senate. In the next year, we will work towards tying in the Senate Daily Summary with the new public version of the Dynamic Red and reinforcing links between formal and informal records. This work will be aligned to a review of our online statistics collection.
Finally, the office will review its service provision and use of information technology, in accordance with the provisions of the employee collective agreement, which commences in July 2006.