Legal Research Questions – No 2

How can I find the 2nd Reading Speech for an Act?


When construing an Act a court is allowed to consider a speech made to Parliament by a Minister on a motion that the Bill be read a second time in that House of Parliament (see Acts Interpretation Act ). The 2nd Reading Speech generally ends with the words “I commend the Bill to the House”. Any parliamentary debates that follow the 2nd Reading Speech may also be useful for interpreting legislation.

The steps to follow to locate 2nd reading speeches in Tasmania will vary depending on the year the Act was passed –

Yes No

Resources:

Hansard (paper) 1979 – 1995Hansard (online) 1992 – House of Assembly & Legislative CouncilTasmanian Parliament – Progress of BillsMercury Reprints (paper) 1920 – 1977Archives Office (contact through your Law Library)

Unlike most States in Australia Tasmania does not have Hansard Records going back to the beginning of the 20th century. To find 2nd reading speeches for a piece of legislation first establish the year that the Bill was introduced into Parliament, and then follow the relevant instructions listed here -

From 2009 on

  1. Go to the Parliamentary web site: http://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/parl2.htm
  2. Click on the Bills Link and from the Drop Down Menu choose Annual List of Bill and then the year
  3. Find the title of the Bill and then click on the View Bill Progress link
  4. At the bottom of the Table that summarises the progress of the Bill through Parliament you will see links for Second Reading, Clause Notes and Fact Sheets
  5. At the time of compiling this document there were also some links to 2nd reading speeches for 2008 Bills.

1992-2008

  1. Still on the Parliamentary web site click on the Hansard link and from the Drop Down menu choose House of Assembly or Legislative Council, depending on which House the Minister responsible site in. It will generally be the House of Assembly
  2. Use the Query Builder Screen to construct your search – see example search below for the Civil Liability Act 2002
  3. Change the year – for this Act un-tick 2009 and tick 2002
  4. Type in the name of the Bill in the Query Box
  5. Click on the AND connector on the right hand side of the screen
  6. Type in : second reading in the Query Box
  7. Click on the Search Button
  8. Sometimes you may have to follow more than one link in the results list to get to the 2nd reading speech. When you click on a link that takes you to the Hansard Page then click on the highlighted name of the Bill to navigate through the page
  9. Once you find the 2nd reading speech – it will start with the name of the Minister and the words: I move that the Bill be read a second time, and ends with the words: I commend the Bill to the House – highlight the text, copy it and paste it into a word document. Also remember to make a note of the date of the 2nd reading which can be found at the top of the Hansard page.
  10. If you don’t want to have the highlighted search terms in the text of the 2nd reading speech then you can click on the download button at the top of the screen and locate the Bill by using the Edit and Find on this page function in the top left hand corner of the screen.

1979 – 1991

  1. You will need to use the print copies of Hansard for these years – available in most Law Libraries.
  2. In the Index for each year look under the Bills heading for the name of the Bill – the entry will list the page number for the 2nd reading speech (indicated by 2R)

Before 1979

  1. Some Law Libraries in Tasmania will have access to the Mercury Reprints, a collection of cuttings from the Mercury, devoted to Parliamentary Debates from 1920-1977. The coverage is patchy – sometimes you may get an outline of the main points of the Bill while at other times it may simply say that the Minister introduced the Bill.
  2. Copies of second reading speeches can sometimes be retrieved from Archives – your Law Library can undertake this for you.