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QUEENSLANDHOW QUEENSLAND HANSARD OPERATES |
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THE ROLEThe role of Queensland Hansard is to provide an accurate, timely and efficient report of the proceedings of the Parliament and its committees in the form of the Daily Hansard, Weekly Hansard, Bound Volumes CD-ROM and the Internet. Hansard also provides publishing support services, including desk-top publishing and editing of reports to in-house clients. In addition, Queensland Hansard conducts fee-for-service reporting assignments for Commonwealth Hansard, the Queensland District and Supreme Courts and other forums. Text retrieval services are also offered to members and others. THE PRODUCTION PROCESSQueensland’s Hansard staff comprises the Chief Reporter, the Deputy Chief
Reporter, The Editors read turns for clarity and correct any errors. Upon completing that task, they then make any necessary formatting changes and print out questions, answers and speeches – Hansard Greens – for transmission in hard copy (within two hours of the conclusion of a speech) to members to be proofread. At the same time, they send the turns electronically to the Editorial Coordinator, who carries out further formatting changes and merges the individual turns into one complete document. Transcripts of speeches are provided within two hours of the conclusion of a speech. Members have half an hour in which to return any suggested alterations to the Chief Reporter, who makes a decision on the acceptance or otherwise of such suggestions. The accepted alterations are sent to the Editorial Coordinator, who incorporates them in the final electronic camera-ready document. That is sent electronically to Goprint to be produced as the hard copy Daily Hansard by 8 a.m. the following day. At virtually the same time the electronic copy of Daily Hansard is published on the Internet. If the House adjourns at 7.30 p.m., Hansard is usually available on the Internet by 9 p.m. In addition, the Daily Hansard to the end of question time (11.30 a.m.) is published on the Internet by 2 p.m. Computing hardware and software currently in use – Hardware Software Reporters PC (Win ’95) Case CATalyst Editors Macintosh WordPerfect Editorial Macintosh WordPerfect Web Publishing PDF, HTML THE STAFFQueensland Hansard has 12 full-time positions – the Chief Reporter, the Deputy Chief Reporter, two Assistant Editors/Supervisors, seven Reporters and one Editorial Coordinator. In responding to the changing reporter profile, it was decided to split one full-time position so as to create two more family friendly positions. Generally, incumbents in these positions are required for duty during parliamentary sittings only. Reporters enjoy six weeks annual leave and accumulate time off during parliamentary sittings in lieu of paid overtime. In recent years, the Queensland Parliament has generally sat from 9.30 a.m. till 7.30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and from 9.30 a.m. till 11.30 p.m. on Wednesdays. THE FUTUREQueensland Hansard continues to support the employment of shorthand writers in recording the proceedings of the Parliament. Queensland Hansard’s team of CAT reporters has demonstrated CAT’s efficiency, flexibility and cost-effectiveness in capturing the spoken word. Queensland Hansard maintains a strategic policy direction of retaining the services of shorthand writers and encouraging students of CAT theory - perpetuating the proud tradition of shorthand reporting in Queensland. |
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THE HISTORYHansard was not established in Queensland until 1864, five years after the granting of responsible government, although the foundation of the Parliamentary Reporting Staff dates from 1860, when Charles Haynes Barlee and Arthur E. Deighton were appointed as shorthand writers. In the first few years of the new colony, the Brisbane Courier-Mail published long reports of parliamentary proceedings, frequently up to seven and eight columns, but subsequently these reports were curtailed, and in 1864 Parliament decided to establish Hansard. The first official Hansard was published for the sittings on 26 April 1864, making Queensland Hansard the second oldest in the world, behind that of Nova Scotia. In 1874 a select committee of inquiry recommended that the existing reports be supplemented by publication of the daily proceedings in the form of a broadsheet, to be printed by the Government Printer and circulated by the newspapers as a supplement. This method was adopted and in 1878 the Colonial Secretary was able to inform the Colonial Secretary of New South Wales, who was making inquiries directed to the establishment of an official Hansard in that colony, that the Queensland official Hansard was issued daily for the Assembly and weekly for the Council. Thus Queensland had the distinction of being the first jurisdiction in the world to issue a daily official report of debates of a Legislature without any form of government censorship. The first official appointment of a Principal Shorthand Writer was made on 13 January 1876, when William Senior, of London, was appointed. Senior was also a writer of short stories, and contributed articles on angling and other topics to the Queenslander under the pen-name of Red Spinner. Senior was editor of the broadsheet Hansard, which continued to be published until 1894, when the practice was abandoned because of the expense of production. While in Brisbane, Senior established and trained a Parliamentary Shorthand Cadet Corps to obviate the difficulty experienced in obtaining competent shorthand reporters. From its inception in 1864 until the turn of the century Hansard was a third person report. The following two decades saw a mixture of first and third person reporting and from approximately 1920 onwards the report has been totally in the first person. In 1910 the Hansard staff comprised seven reporters and 14 cadets. Shorthand writers
were introduced into the Supreme Court in 1913, and from 1916 they were required to report
proceedings in the Industrial Court. On 13 March 1913, all members of the Hansard staff
were appointed ‘Court Shorthand Writers for the purpose … of the Rules of the
Supreme Court’. With the abolition of the Legislative Council in 1922 and the
consequent curtailment of the sessions of Parliament the work of the Parliamentary
Reporting Staff was considerably lightened. On the other hand the reporting of judicial
proceedings had so increased in volume as to tax to the utmost the staff of court
reporters. It appeared that the amalgamation of these two staffs was the logical solution
to the problem of securing a more equitable distribution of the reporting work.
Accordingly, the State Reporting Bureau was brought into being from On 20 June 1972, the section of the bureau directly connected with the courts was transferred from the Premier’s Department to the Justice Department. It was named the Court Reporting Bureau and was headed by the Chief Court Reporter and the Deputy Chief Court Reporter. The Hansard Reporters were left under the control of the Premier’s Department and this partitioned section was named the Parliamentary Reporting Staff, headed by the Chief Hansard Reporter and the Deputy Chief Hansard Reporter, who were officers of the Legislative Assembly. When not on leave or required for other duties, Hansard Reporters continued to assist court reporters during parliamentary recesses. At the end of 1988, the Parliamentary Service Commission was established and the Premier’s Department ceased its employment of the staff of the Parliament, all officers, including Hansard staff, becoming employees of the commission. Until 1989 the text of Hansard was completely rekeyed by the Queensland Government Printing Office, later to become Goprint, which then formatted and printed Hansard. To that time reporters’ copy was produced on typewriters (manual until 1980), with subediting and editing by reporters and editors hand written. The final hard copy was taken to the Printing Office by messenger (facsimile from the late 1980s) and all text rekeyed by compositors on linotype machines, known as hot-lead printing. Computer photo-typesetting of Hansard was introduced by Goprint in August 1984. In 1989 Queensland Hansard moved to a network of Macintosh computers running WordPerfect, but all subediting and editing continued to be hand written on the hard copy printouts. The electronic turns were placed on a file server at Goprint, the hard copy turns faxed and the Goprint operators keyed in the handwritten editorial changes. In July 1991 Hansard moved to on-screen editing by both reporters and editors and the in-house production of camera-ready copy of Daily Hansard. In 1993 a consultants report recommended that all reporters on the Hansard staff be CAT
writers. This recommendation was adopted and three pen writers and seven permanent In addition, in 1996 Queensland Hansard introduced its first CD-ROM, which enabled clients to search Hansard electronically back to 1990. The CD-ROM, produced in February and August each year, became a parliamentary CD-ROM in 2000, still containing all Hansard from 1990, but adding Votes and Proceedings and the reports and transcripts of parliamentary committees. Queensland Hansard became available on the Internet in January 1997. Chief Hansard Reporters in Queensland – 13 January 1876 – 1 April 1881 Mr William Senior 1 April 1881 – 6 October 1892 Mr David Frederick Tudor Jones 5 November 1892 – 20 May 1921 Mr John Gilligan 20 May 1921 – 1 April 1933 Mr Jas. Brennan 1 April 1933– 1 November 1933 Mr W. H. Smith 1 November 1933 – 1 July 1954 Mr C. (Theo) Wood 1 July 1954 - 1 July 1962 Mr L. P. Waller 1 July 1962 – 29 August 1974 Mr Stanley Bradshaw Rohl 29 August 1974 – 8 October 1979 Mr C. (Baxter) McCarthy 9 October 1979 – 24 July 1981 Mr Col R. Burns 27 July 1981 – 8 July 1983 Mr Cedric Smith 28 July 1983 – 11 June 1986 Mr John (Bevan) Battersby 4 September 1986 – 1 September 1989 Mr Warwick Trotman Foote 25 September 1989 – 22 April 1990 Mr Peter Bradshaw Rohl 14 June 1990 – 6 October 2000 Mr Alan John Watson 16 February 2001 – Mr Douglas John Rohl Site copyright © APHEA 2003. |
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