When did the firemen of NSW have to eat their breakfast?
How many pianos were imported to Australia via Sydney Harbour?
When was the first Bill on Daylight Saving introduced?
You can now access historic Bills and Tabled Papers on the Parliament’s website. The Parliament’s Digitisation project has expanded our collection of digitised historic bills and tabled papers, which provides a unique insight into more than 160 years of lawmaking at the Parliament of NSW.
What is a bill?
A bill is a proposed law that becomes an Act after passing both Houses of Parliament in the same form and receiving assent. Some bills never become laws, some are amended on their journey through the Houses, or multiple versions may be introduced. Parliament has just published an extensive repository of 11,500 PDFs and 15,000 records of historic bills introduced into NSW Parliament since 1856. You can find them under ‘BILLS’ on the website homepage.
What are tabled papers?
Tabled papers are documents such as messages from the Governor, statutory instruments, petitions, bills, and others. The archive of tabled papers has been expanded by an additional 80 years and 100,000 records. You can now access papers dating from 1824 to 1938 (previously only 1824 – 1855) by selecting ‘All by date’ from the HANSARD & HOUSEPAPERS dropdown on the Parliament’s website homepage, clicking on the filter tab and selecting ‘all tabled papers and reports’ as your paper type and applying the historic dates that you are interested in.
Take a quick trip through the State’s history by exploring the links below:
- The bill that allowed women to practise law and become members of Parliament had to be restarted three times.Take a look at the four versions here. (Scroll down to Women’s Legal Status Bill)
- Firemen were expected to rise no later than 6:45am, have breakfast between 8am – 9am and have dinner between 1pm – 2pm. (p. 15, LATP 1914-11).
- 6,706 tonnes of pianos were imported through Sydney Harbour in 1914-15 (from LATP 1915-1084, p.24, 15th report of Sydney Harbour Trust Commissioners).
- In 1975, legislation was required to hold a referendum on whether to introduce daylight saving – Daylight Saving (Referendum) Bill 1975. The first bill on daylight saving was introduced in 1916 – see the debate in the LA Hansard on 22 November 1916 (p. 2995).
- The Government Loans Bill 1856was the first bill to be passed by the newly bicameral Parliament of NSW, which sat for the first time in 1856.
Have questions?
Contact our Parliamentary Librarian at [email protected].
