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Types of House papers

Types of House papers

​​​​​There are a number of documents relating to the proceedings of the Legislative Assembly which can be found on this website. The following list gives a short description of each House paper. Hard copies of some of these publications are also accessible through the State Library, university libraries and various other libraries and organisations.

Daily Business Program
A daily business program is prepared by the Leader of the House for each sitting day and provides a listing of business to be dealt with on that day. The program is indicative only and the order may be varied without notice.

Hansard
Hansard is the printed record of the parliamentary debates and proceedings, similar to a transcript. A draft copy is prepared overnight by reporting staff and editors and is available online, usually within 3 hours of the last House rising. Members may make suggestions for corrections to their speeches but these should only relate to inaccuracies and new matters cannot be introduced.

Votes and Proceedings
The "Votes" document is the official record of the proceedings in the Legislative Assembly. They are the formal minutes of proceedings of the House, i.e. they record the resolutions of the House and other events rather than giving a transcript of proceedings. The Votes include a record of the proceedings when a bill or other matter is considered in detail.

The draft votes are available online on the Parliament's website each sitting day.

Scanned copies of indexes and records  of the NSW Legislative Assembly from the 1st (1856) to the 50th (1991-94) Parliament can now be viewed. These records have been created in a searchable PDF format as part of a wider digitalisation project.

Business Paper
The Business Paper lists notices of motion and orders of the day. A notice of motion is a statement of intention to move a motion on a particular day. A member may not move a motion unless notice of the member’s intention to move the motion appears in the business paper, except as otherwise provided by leave, standing or sessional orders or resolutions of the House. This means that in most cases notice must be given at least one day before the motion is moved. A notice of motion sets out the words of the motion. Members give notices of motions for bills, government business, and for business accorded precedence (motions of no confidence or censure and other motions for business with precedence).

Questions and Answers Paper
Questions which Members of the Legislative Assembly wish to put to Ministers in writing (as opposed to oral questions asked at Question Time), together with the answers when they are received, are recorded in the official publication titled “Questions and Answers”. Members’ questions are published in full when the question is first asked and once again when the answer is received. The Questions and Answers Paper is published each sitting day, and during any adjournment of the House for two weeks or more a paper is published from time to time containing answers received. In addition, a final edition (containing all the unanswered questions) is published after the House is prorogued.

Tabled Papers & Reports
The Legislative Assembly Tabled Papers Register is an electronic database which is used to record all papers tabled in the House. This database only displays the reports and other Papers which are tabled in the Legislative Assembly. Documents such as messages between the Houses or the Governor, statutory instruments, petitions, and Bills are not included unless they become Parliamentary Papers. The aim is to register documents on this database within 24 hours of their tabling in the Legislative Assembly.

Statutory Rules & Instruments
The Statutory Rules and Instruments paper is published by the Legislative Assembly Table Office for the information of Members on Tuesdays during sitting weeks and on the first Tuesday of every month when the House is not sitting. The document lists the title and date of gazettal of the rule or instrument, information on the tabling date, and the last sitting day for the notice of disallowance to be given by the House.

Procedural Statistics​​
This document provides procedural statistics for the sessions of the Legislative Assembly and the year to date, including: the number of bills introduced; the number of sitting days and the hours of sitting (with a breakdown of the business conducted); the number of questions lodged or asked orally; the number of divisions; the number of petitions presented; and the number of committee reports tabl​​​ed.

The Parliament of New South Wales acknowledges and respects the traditional lands of all Aboriginal people, and pays respects to all Elders past and present. We acknowledge the Gadigal people as the traditional custodians of the land on which the Parliament of New South Wales stands.