find Hansard by member or subject index (covering a parliament session)
Hansard is not a verbatim transcript of what occurs in the chambers but a faithful record of debate. It is generally corrected for redundancies, errors of fact, grammar, false starts and slips of the tongue, and it can incorporate submitted materials that are not read aloud.
Hansard is also the name of the division that publishes Hansard. Upon request, Hansard provides transcripts of hearings to parliamentary committees, who determine their publication.
Before October 2007, Daily Hansard is available as a single file (PDF), which is only searchable by calendar or words and phrases.
Since October 2007, individual subjects in Daily Hansard can also be viewed online, which adds searching by names of members, proceedings, bill stages and other information.
To narrow / filter your search:
Select a smaller date range (time period).
Add multiple search words or exact phrases (enclosed in quotes "").
If after October 2007, select other search fields to limit the search results to specific chambers, members, bills, electorates, subjects and other information.
To further refine your list of search results, click the filters/labels in the left pane (next to your list of results):
Proceeding can limit results to only Question Time or Bills.
Subproceeding can limit results to the specific stage of a Bill.
Indices can help find Hansard with specific members and subjects (including bills) before October 2007:
Member index lists page numbers of member speeches, questions and answers covering a parliament session.
Subject index lists page numbers of bills, questions and other subjects covering a parliament session.
Open a Daily Hansard in the time period of that parliament session, check its page numbers, then move to earlier or later dates to find the one with the desired page number.
Dynamic indices provide direct links to subjects in Daily Hansards that relate to the subject or a specific member.
