During 2008–09, the Clerk and other senior officers made presentations on aspects of the Senate, Senate committees and parliamentary procedure to various Australian and international audiences, including:

• parliamentary committees
• individual members of parliament and their staff
• departmental staff, other parliamentary officers and staff from a wide range of Australian Public Service agencies
• overseas visitors, including parliamentary delegations
• participants in conferences and seminars, including a number as part of programs conducted by the Australian National University Parliamentary Studies Centre and the Centre for Democratic Institutions
• schoolchildren and members of the public.

In particular, the Clerk made the following presentations to groups, conferences and parliamentary committees:

• Senators’ orientation program, 21–24 July 2008 (with other departmental staff)
• Committee for Economic Development of Australia address, 29 July 2008
• Centre for Democratic Institutions, Responsible Parliamentary Governance course, 10 September 2008
• Bicameralism conference, 9–10 October 2008
• Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies presentation, 16 October 2008
• Australian Rural Leadership Program, 10 November 2008 (with other departmental staff)
• The Vincent Fairfax Fellowship, address to delegates, 28 January 2009
• Book launch: Elective Dictatorship, 24 February 2009
• Canberra Day Oration, 12 March 2009
• Victorian Legislative Council, Standing Orders Committee, 25 March 2009
• Leadership Ballarat and Western Region Conference, 3 June 2009.

Departmental officers also presented and published papers on the powers, procedures and operations of the Senate or related issues, as detailed below.

Papers produced by departmental officers, 2008–09

The department maintained and updated an extensive catalogue of publicly available documents and other resources during 2008–09, as listed by category below. Contact details for each publication area are also listed.

Materials which are available on the department’s website (www.aph.gov.au/senate) or the Parliamentary Education Office website (www.peo.gov.au) are marked with the symbol . Materials which are available in hard copy are marked with the symbol . Materials available on CDROM are marked with the symbol .

Publications by subject area

Publications on the work and procedures of the Senate
Bills List and Daily Bills Update (details of the status of bills before the parliament) Brief Guides to Senate Procedure, Nos 1–23 (practical guides to common practices and procedures) Business of the Senate (a comprehensive summary of business) Chamber support services for senators (a guide to documents and services provided to the chamber) Dynamic Red (the daily Order of Business, updated online during each sitting day) Journals of the Senate (the minutes of chamber proceedings) List of senators (senators’ contact information, terms of service and state and party representation) Odgers’ Australian Senate Practice, twelfth edition and supplements (a comprehensive procedural reference work) Order of Business (the Senate ‘Red’ or daily program) Pocket Guide to Senate Procedure (a consolidation of Brief guides to Senate Procedure) Preparing private senators’ bills, explanatory memoranda and second reading speeches: A guide for senators (information about legislation for senators and their support staff, also available on the departmental intranet) Privileges Committee 125th Report—Parliamentary privilege: Precedents, procedures and practice in the Australian Senate 1966–2005 Procedural Information Bulletin (a regular digest of events of procedural significance) Questions on Notice Summary (a statistical analysis of questions placed on notice by senators) Routine of business (shows the routine of business for sittings days and the time limits for debate) Senate Briefs, Nos 1–16 (general introductions to aspects of the Senate, including elections, legislation, parliamentary privilege,the committee system and ministers in the Senate) Senate Daily Summary (a daily digest of Senate business) Senate Notice Paper (the Senate’s daily agenda) Senate Statistical Summary (weekly statistics on Senate business) Senators’ Guide to Procedures (a practical introduction to the chamber) Senators’ Handbook—A guide to services, entitlements and facilities for senators (information for senators and their support staff, also available on the departmental intranet) Standing Orders and Other Orders of the Senate (rules and resolutions governing the Senate’s proceedings) StatsNet (online statistical databases) The Senate (a brochure about the role and functioning of the Senate) Your Senate online (a brochure outlining how to access information about the Senate online)
Publications on the work and procedures of Senate committees
Bills referred to committees (an up-to-date list of bills referred to committees) Business of Committees (the Senate ‘Committee Red’ or daily program) Committee style guide (style guide for the preparation of Senate committee reports) Consolidated Register of Senate Committee Reports 1970–2004 and annual supplements ; 1970–2007 (a list of committee reports presented to the Senate since 1970) Delegated Legislation Monitor (information on every disallowable legislative and nonlegislative instrument tabled in the Senate) Disallowance Alert (an updated list of disallowance actions initiated by the Regulations and Ordinances Committee and individual senators, together with outcomes) Guide to committee procedure and practice (an easy-reference guide for committee staff) How to make a submission to a Senate committee inquiry ; Notes for the guidance of witnesses appearing before Senate committees ; and Procedures to be observed by Senate committees for the protection of witnesses (three types of information for members of the public with an interest in participating in the work of Senate committees) Public hearings/meetings (a program of scheduled meetings) RSS feeds (alert service for new Senate committee inquiries, recently tabled Senate committee reports and public hearings) Scrutiny of Bills Committee Alert Digests (a document which notifies senators and the public about issues arising in relation to bills and Acts) Scrutiny of Bills Committee Reports (the committee’s observations and recommendations in relation to bills and Acts) Scrutiny of Disallowable Instruments (a list of disallowable legislative and nonlegislative instruments about which the Regulations and Ordinances Committee has raised concerns) Senate Disallowable Instruments List (a list of tabled instruments for which disallowance motions may be moved in the Senate, published for each sitting) Work of Committees (a comprehensive summary of committee business)
Parliamentary, constitutional and historical publications
1903–2003: One Hundred Years of Women’s Suffrage in Australia (poster commemorating the 100th anniversary of the first federal election at which women of all Australian states voted) A Nation at Last—the Story of Federation (the book based on the exhibition of the same name) Australia’s Parliament (a visitor guide, available in English and multilingual editions) Business of the Senate 1901–1910 (two volumes) (commemorative issues relating to the first parliaments) Can Responsible Government Survive in Australia? David Hamer, revised edition, 2004 (a comparative study of the powers and procedures of 20 Commonwealth legislatures, by a former senator and member) Eureka and the Prerogative of the People, John Molony, 2004 (booklet commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Eureka Stockade rebellion) Papers on Parliament, Nos. 1–50 (the department’s journal, which publishes the texts of occasional lectures and other essays) Platypus and Parliament: The Australian Senate in Theory and Practice, Stanley Bach, 2003 (a comprehensive analysis of the Senate by a former Senate Fellow) Records of the Australasian Federal Conventions of the 1890s (the complete transcripts of the founding debates of the nation) Records of the Centenary of Federation Joint Commemorative Meeting of the Senate and the House of Representatives, 9 May 2001, and of the Sitting of the Senate, 10 May 2001 Senate Legislative and General Purpose Standing Committees—The First 20 Years, 1970–1990 (a general history of the Senate’s committee system) Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs—The Twentieth Anniversary of the Committee, 1991 (a general history of one committee) The Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate (an ongoing, multivolume work of reference on Australia’s senators, Volume 1 covering 1901–1929, Volume 2 covering 1929–1962, volumes 3 and 4 forthcoming)
Parliamentary Education Office publications
Australia’s Constitution (a pocket-sized edition of the Australian Constitution) Australia’s Constitution CD (a double-CD edition of the Australian Constitution for people with a vision or print disability) Closer Look—A Comparison of US and Australian Federal Legislatures (a comparison of the political systems of Australia and the United States) Closer Look—A Multitiered System: governing Australia (an explanation, with examples, of how Australia is governed) Closer Look—A Short History of Parliament (a description of the origins and development of the parliament) Closer Look—Australia’s Parliament House (a brief history of the buildings used by the parliament) Closer Look—The Australian Constitution (details on the Australian Constitution and its history and significance) Closer Look—The First Parliament of Australia: the ceremony (details of the opening ceremony of the First Parliament) DIY role-play in the classroom (hints, tips and instructions for teachers running a parliamentary role-play) Fact sheet series (56 fact sheets covering many aspects of the role and function of the parliament) FAQ (over 200 questions and answers about the parliament) Hands-on Lesson Plans (12 complete lesson plans for teachers of middle to upper secondary students) Kidsview (interactive games and activities for students and teachers) Parliament in Pictures (10 posters and a classroom guide introducing teachers and students to the parliament) Parliamentary glossary (parliamentary terms and definitions) Parliament NOW (current information about the Forty-second Parliament and the operations of the Senate and the House of Representatives) Parliament of Wizards CD (teacher resource that introduces primary school students to the parliament through the world of magic) Peeling back Parliament (magazine format information and activities for upper primary and lower secondary teachers and students) Poster of the House of Representatives Chamber (A2-sized colour poster of the House of Representatives chamber) Poster of the Senate Chamber (A2-sized colour poster of the Senate chamber) Role-play toolkit (roleplay resources for teachers, including scripts, templates, rubrics and diagrams) Unravelling the parliamentary role-play (activities and instructions for using parliamentary role-play in the classroom)
Publications providing departmental information
Annual Report of the Department of the Senate Corporate Plan Portfolio Budget Statements

Contact details by subject area