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Access to the Law in Australia the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library's Contribution
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2019
Extract
It is often said that the effective working of a representative democracy depends on the availability of adequate information and the capacity for its independent evaluation. Such access, it is argued is a major contributor to restoring the significance of the Parliament. Similarly there is a commonly held view that access to justice depends on the laws of the Parliament and the courts being freely available to everyone.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © 2000 by the International Association of Law Libraries
References
1.
Jones, Barry, Sleepers Wake! Technology and the Future of Work, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1990, pp. 246 and 252 and Verrier, J R, The Future of Parliamentary Research Services: To Lead or to Follow, paper prepared for the IFLA Conference, Istanbul, August 1995.Google Scholar
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3. The author acknowledges that other parts of the Information and Research Services Program also provide significant and valued services to Senators and Members in terms of individual client requests and general distribution products. See Department of the Parliamentary Library, Annual Report, 1997-98, pp. 11–30.Google Scholar
6. See Lovell, David, The sausage makers? Parliamentarians as Legislators, Canberra, Department of the Parliamentary Library, 1992.Google Scholar
7. For a general discussion of the role of Parliament in the Australian political system, see David Lovell, Ibid.
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8. For example Health Legislation Amendment Bill 1997, Bills Digest, No. 114, 1997-98, p. 4.Google Scholar
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20. Results of this evaluation will be published in the Department of the Parliamentary Library's, Annual Report, 1998-99.
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Laundy, Philip, Parliamentary Librarianship in the English-speaking World, London, The Library Association, 1980, p. 97. In Finsten, Hugh, The Parliamentary Research Branch of Canada's Library of Parliament, Ottawa, Library of Parliament, 1998, pp. 11–12.Google Scholar
22. There was also a view that the Library has always published its General Distribution Papers in hard copy and Internet publishing is no more and no less than publishing in another form.Google Scholar
24. The full text of all original General Distribution Papers is available on the Internet at http://www.aph.gov.au/library/
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25. According to June Verrier, the Congressional Research Service's reluctance to put their material on the Internet is partly due to a fear of a diversion of resources by the need to respond to public inquiries or suggestions and, too, a fear that not just the focus of effort but its style may need to be changed if CRS material is to be in the public domain in this fashion. See J R Verrier, Seminar on Comparative Legislative Research Services Ottawa Canada, 2 April 1998: Report and Paper on Australian Parliamentary Information and Research Service Approaches to Client Feedback, Department of the Parliamentary Library, 1998 p. 6.Google Scholar
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Ibid.
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28. In this part of the paper, I am particularly indebted to Kirsty Magery, a colleague in the Department of the Parliamentary Library, for reliance on her forthcoming paper, ‘The Internet and Australian Parliamentary Democracy’ to be published shortly in Parliamentary Affairs.
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Ibid.
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32. However funding has recently been allocated by the Department of Finance and Administration for the provision of Internet in electorate offices.Google Scholar
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34. For a fuller discussion of the impact of the interactive capabilities of the Internet and their impact on democracy in Australia see K. Magery, Op cit.
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35. Results of this evaluation will be published in the Department of the Parliamentary Library's, Annual Report, 1998-99.
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