Parliament’s Hansard records dating back before 2014 remain unavailable online, while some historical documents from the 1990s and earlier have been lost permanently.
The issue was raised by Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence deputy chair Rinesh Sharma during scrutiny of Parliament’s annual report, where he asked whether plans were in place to digitise and upload the records to Parliament’s website.
Secretary-General to Parliament Jeanette Emberson said Parliament had previously sought to purchase a specialised scanner to digitise old and fragile documents but could not afford it.
“The issue with those reports is that they are old and some of the pages are not able to be scanned, so we needed that machine, which we could not afford,” she said.
Ms Emberson said the cost remained prohibitive given other priorities and the immediate needs of members in carrying out their oversight roles. However, the secretariat would continue working to preserve records that were still in suitable condition.
She also revealed that some historical documents were no longer available because of damage to the former parliamentary precincts.
“We may not have all the records on hand as well because, as you remember, there was a lot that was happening during that time. A lot of damage had also occurred in the old parliamentary precincts, and so some records were never recovered.
“What we currently have in our library with our team is what we have been able to salvage.”
Ms Emberson said Parliament hoped to digitise the surviving records soon.
