Sources of Government information

Government email services can not generally be relied on to keep you fully informed about policy developments in areas of interest to an association but they can be a good partial solution or starting point:

• This link will enable you to subscribe to media release services from one or more portfolios
  • http://media.australia.gov.au/notify.cgi?collection=releases
• The Prime Minister offers an email service covering his own media releases and speeches
  • http://www.pm.gov.au/news/emailList/newsSubscribe.cfm

To access other Government and regulatory information you will usually have to investigate government websites. Here are some gateways and specialised search engines that can simplify the task:

• This link provides an entry point to all Australian Government departments and agencies. Many offer their own alert services which are often more comprehensive than the media release service (but are rarely completely comprehensive)
  • http://www.australia.gov.au/a-z-list
• This link will take you to all state and territory government websites – some of which offer media release or other alert services similar to (but rarely as comprehensive as) the Australian Government service
  • http://www.australia.gov.au/states-territories
• The Australian Government provides a number of websites and searchable databases covering its own and (in some cases) state and territory legislation, delegated legislation, case law and other legal matters
  • http://www.publications.gov.au/click.php?http://scaleplus.law.gov.au/
  • http://www.publications.gov.au/click.php?http://www.comlaw.gov.au/
  • http://www.law.gov.au/
• The previous category of references covers legislation that has been enacted. The following link will take you to the details of legislation currently being considered by parliament: (text of the bill, explanatory memorandum and in some cases an analysis of the effect of legislation prepared for MPs by the Parliamentary Research Service)
  • http://parlinfoweb.aph.gov.au/piweb/browse.aspx?path=legislation%3Ecurrent+bills+by+title
• These links will provide you with a regularly updated list  of the progress of all bills currently before parliament (updated daily when parliament is sitting)
  • http://www.aph.gov.au/parlinfo/billsnet/blist.pdf
  • http://www.aph.gov.au/parlinfo/billsnet/billsupd.pdf
  • http://www.aph.gov.au/parlinfo/billsnet/billslst.pdf
• This link takes you to a specialised search engine in the Federal Parliamentary Library designed primarily to search the parliamentary Hansard. It will also identify other information on legislation and politics such as media reports but not provide the text of this other information (for copyright reasons)
  • http://parlinfoweb.aph.gov.au/piweb/search_main.aspx