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Annual Report 2004–05 You are currently viewing: Annual
report Output Group 1.2—Community AwarenessServices to increase public knowledge
and awareness of, and interaction with, the work of the House of
Representatives and the Commonwealth Parliament
DescriptionOutput Group 1.2 is the principal focus of the Liaison and Projects Office, a significant area of responsibility for the Serjeant-at-Arms’ Office, and staff from all offices in the department contribute to the community outreach services provided under the output group. To increase knowledge about the House, we publish procedural and news documents, organise and participate in internal and external seminars and lectures (in Canberra and at many locations and campuses across Australia), and disseminate detailed information via a comprehensive series of internet listings and in response to email queries from individuals and organisations. Information about members is kept current, published on the department’s website and disseminated on request. To facilitate school and public visits to observe proceedings, we manage seat bookings in the Chamber galleries and security arrangements for the Chamber, the Main Committee and all committee rooms. Directly and indirectly, we assist interested people to better understand and participate in the work of the House, its committees and the Parliament. In the department’s 2004–05 Portfolio Budget Statements and Portfolio Additional Estimates Statements, Output Group 1.2 appeared as Output 1.5 (Public information and education) of Output Group 1. In 2004–05, expenditure on Output Group 1.2 was $1.27 million. The budget allocation was $1.13 million. Output group financial resources are summarised in Table 1. Staff levels, by location, are shown in Appendix 10. PerformanceOur community outreach program expanded during the year, with increases in subscriptions to our magazine and email alert service, an increase in the number of seminar participants, and the introduction of a monthly television program. The school visits program also grew during the year.
a The Department of the House of Representatives and the Department of the Senate jointly fund the Office, which is administered by the Department of the Senate Community liaisonAbout the House magazine, now in its seventh year, remained a key publication for informing Australians about the work of the House of Representatives and its committees. The mailing list grew significantly during 2004–05. Around 15,000 copies of the May 2005 edition were distributed across Australia (showing a significant increase, compared with 14,000 copies for the June 2004 edition). The estimated readership of the magazine is around 50,000 (based on publishing industry estimates that each copy of a magazine is usually read by three or four people). Feedback was extremely positive, with readers complimenting us on the content and layout of the magazine. Comments from readers included: ‘it is top quality, non-political and very informative’, ‘it is so worthwhile and media unadulterated’, ‘the issues in this magazine correspond to the issues that I teach’, and ‘it was the best of those I’ve seen in terms of imaginative layout, headings and illustrations’. The magazine was not published during the period leading up to and immediately after the October 2004 election, so only two editions of the magazine were published during the year instead of the usual five. We maintained a detailed advance summary of the expected business of the House and Main Committee on our website throughout the period. Feedback from consumers of this service suggests that it is keenly embraced. Our free email alert service, providing up-to-date information on the work of committees, also experienced strong growth in subscriptions. More than 1,400 organisations and individuals subscribed to the service, up from 600 in 2002–03 and 950 in 2003–04. Subscribers included more than 500 media outlets. Media liaison services provided through our media adviser helped to bring committee work to the attention of the Australian media, and generated broader and more detailed coverage of committees. The value of having a media adviser working with committees was recognised by the Secretary of the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery and Australian Associated Press Bureau Chief, James Grubel, when he appeared before the House of Representatives Procedure Committee for its inquiry into media coverage of House proceedings. Mr Grubel told the committee that having a media adviser for House of Representatives committees was ‘a fantastic thing’, because the media adviser alerted the press to upcoming committee work and activities. Seminars and presentationsThe seminar program on the practices and procedures of the House, now in its eighth year, continued to grow, with more participants and increased demand for presentations. A new seminar, Working with the House, was added in 2005 to give a practical guide to House operations for people in ministerial and parliamentary liaison areas in government departments and agencies, who work with the House on a daily basis. Our staff substantially reworked the program’s introductory seminar, About the House, to cater for the changing needs of the client audience. Feedback about the revised seminar has been very positive and encouraging. The advertised seminar program involved nine seminars, but we arranged six additional seminars for such organisations as the Australian Public Service Commission in Adelaide, AusTrac and Hearing Australia in Sydney, and Centrelink in Canberra. We conducted programmed seminars in Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide, and received very positive feedback from participants. The seminars were conducted on a cost recovery basis. In 2004–05, 602 participants registered (a big increase from 470 in 2002–03 and 473 in 2003–04). Each seminar received an overall rating of ‘extremely satisfied’ from participants. During the year, Murdoch University, Warrane College at the University of New South Wales, Newcastle University and Bond University participated in our House Calls university lecture program, in which senior officers and current members of the House of Representatives present two-hour lectures to politics and law students. The program aims to improve links between universities and the House. Feedback from lecturers and students indicated that the program is a valuable mechanism for improving students’ understanding of how the House works.
The House Calls lecture program at Murdoch University was presented by the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Kim Beazley, and the Clerk, Ian Harris. Projects and eventsA monthly television program on the work of the House and its committees was developed and has been screened on the Sky News channel since February 2005. The program, which focuses on issues being investigated by parliamentary committees, is produced by the Liaison and Projects Office in association with the Department of Parliamentary Services. A study guide was produced on the House of Representatives multimedia history project, A House for the Nation. The project includes a CD-ROM, a documentary and a website on the first 100 years of the House. The study guide will help us market the project to universities and secondary schools. More than 1,000 copies of the CD-ROM and more than 200 copies of the documentary have been sold, with the CD-ROM being adopted as a learning resource at a number of tertiary institutions. Public visits to observe proceedingsWhile schoolchildren comprise the largest grouping of visitors to the chamber galleries, large numbers of non-school visitors book seats in the galleries during sittings to observe question time proceedings. Other peak times for gallery attendances were Budget night, the opening day of the Forty-first Parliament, and the days on which new members made their first speeches. The attendance of non-school visitors is 1,658 as a daily average during a sitting week, peaking at some 3,200 on Budget day. School visits to Parliament HouseThe school visits program continues to expand. In 2004–05, a total of 111,261 students visited Parliament House, an increase of 3 per cent on the total of 108,367 reached in 2003–04. Groups from many schools visit each year, and once new schools see the value of visiting the national capital and the great importance of visiting Parliament House they make the trip an annual event. Bookings for prime days and times are filling very early each year, making it difficult for new schools to access the times and programs they seek. More than 74 per cent of students visiting Parliament House do so in the six months between June and November inclusive. The Parliamentary Education Office will be trialling additional education programs after 5 pm each day during the very busy periods of August and September in an attempt to meet the needs of more visiting groups. These additional programs will particularly help on sitting days when parliamentary committees are meeting and when the pressure on available spaces for students is greatest. Figure 8 shows the breakdown for the past four years, by state and territory, of students visiting Parliament House. The figures show that the relative costs of a visit to Canberra affect the number of students visiting from each state or territory. Figure 8 School students visiting Parliament House, 2001–02 to 2004–05
Of the students visiting, all participated in a tour of Parliament House, including a visit to the House of Representatives galleries; 74 per cent participated in a parliamentary education program; and 78 per cent took part in refreshments provided by the department. Citizenship Visits ProgramThe number of students participating in the Citizenship Visits Program (CVP), which provides a subsidy to assist students travelling more than 1,000 kilometres to visit Parliament, continued to increase. In 2004–05, 18,741 students received the subsidy, an increase of 3 per cent on the total of 18,190 reached in 2003–04. The rates of subsidy were increased on 1 January 2004. Of the visitors in 2004–05, 78.6 per cent (14,736 students) received the $40 subsidy, 9.2 per cent (1,721 students) received the $110 subsidy, and 12.2 per cent (2,284 students) received the $230 subsidy. As in previous years, most of those who received the subsidy (74 per cent) were final-year primary students, while the remainder were secondary students. However, also as in previous years, the students who travelled from the remotest areas were mostly secondary students. Those travelling from Queensland were the most likely to qualify for the lowest subsidy, and 90 per cent of the students from Queensland were primary students. Figure 9 CVP visits, by month, 2004–05
Figure 10 School students receiving CVP subsidies, 2002–03, 2003–04 and 2004–05
Parliamentary Education OfficeDuring 2004–05 the Parliamentary Education Office (PEO) continued to provide parliamentary education services to schools, teachers and students. The PEO has two main functions. First, through the Education Centre in Parliament House (a committee room which has been modified to represent a parliamentary chamber), the PEO provides an hour-long role-play for visiting student groups. Secondly, the PEO conducts outreach programs across Australia, often in association with local members and senators, and produces online publications for students and teachers who might not be able to visit Parliament House. The Department of the House of Representatives and the Department of the Senate both fund the office, which is staffed by the Department of the Senate and reported on in that department’s annual report. During the year, the two departments jointly approved the PEO’s administrative budget and annual work plans. One of the main responsibilities of the Department of the House of Representatives in relation to the PEO continued to be to advise the PEO on the content of its educational programs and material, including online resources. The department also continued to work in partnership with the PEO—for example, in relation to publications—where there were mutual benefits. The Clerk Assistant (Table) attended, as an observer, meetings of the PEO Advisory Committee, which is chaired by the Deputy Speaker. Parliamentary internship programDuring 2004–05, the department continued to take part in the parliamentary internship program. This program, which operates under an agreement between the Presiding Officers and the Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University, enables Australian and overseas senior tertiary students to spend ten weeks of their studies in the Parliament. In 2004–05, 41 students (44 in 2003–04) were placed with senators, members or parliamentary committees, and completed research projects nominated by their hosts. An additional 36 students (38 in 2003–04) were placed outside the Parliament, in the public service, non-governmental bodies and the private sector. We and the Department of the Senate conducted seminars for all interns on the procedures and practices of the Parliament. Parliamentary assistants programThe department continued to employ university students under the parliamentary assistants program, which has elements of employment, educational and outreach programs. The parliamentary assistants program takes students from Canberra-based universities and employs them on a casual, part-time basis in support of the House of Representatives for one year. The objectives of the program are to give students an understanding of parliament and to interest them in future careers with the department. Improving performanceDuring the year, we revamped the layout of the About the House magazine to maintain a contemporary look, and used additional writers to help strengthen its content. The development of a television program for screening on Sky News helped bring parliamentary committee work to a new audience, giving members of the public more opportunity to learn about the work of the House. Outcomes of an evaluation conducted in 2003 of the PEO Education Centre, referred to in previous reports, were implemented during the period. The outcomes included a revision of Education Centre scripts and increased flexibility for students. OutlookWe will continue to refine and develop the key elements of our community outreach program, namely: About the House magazine, the television program, seminars and media liaison services. We will build on the quality of our products and services to ensure that they remain up to date and relevant to the community. The study guide for the A House for the Nation history project will be marketed to schools and universities to ensure that the CD-ROM and documentary get broader exposure in secondary and tertiary institutions. In relation to parliamentary education programs for schools, we will build on the working relationships we have nurtured with executive agencies that provide access to civics education programs. Good working relationships will ensure greater coordination between the offices administering various programs so that potential participants are aware of the programs available. The PEO expects to continue to host record numbers of students at the Education Centre, while working with members and senators to provide educational resources for their constituents. It will continue to develop and enhance its parliamentary education agenda, including by completing a reorganised and interactive website and launching specific teacher-based and student-based learning resources. You are currently viewing: Annual
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