New Zealand Government information
LIBRARY RESOURCES
Contents:
Official publications
   House of Representatives
   Select Committee Reports
E-journals
Reference material
Newspapers
Databases
Internet		 Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives Contact Subject Librarian 

Arts Information Services
Level 1
General Library
University of Auckland
Department of Political Studies
 

Most of the University of Auckland Library's printed material on the New Zealand government is located in the New Zealand and Pacific Collection, Ground Level, General Library.  Legal material is located in the Davis Law Library. 

Sources for finding New Zealand official information are listed below.  Links are usually through to the Voyager record.  To access links to Library electronic resources, such as databases, or e-journals, you need to log on with your Net ID and Net Password.

Official publications top of page

House of Representatives top of page

  • Journals of the House of Representatives. 
    The Journals are the official record of the proceedings of the House of Representatives. The Journals list accounts and papers presented to the House, Bills and their progress, members of select committees, and petitions presented. Useful to track when something happened, and who was involved. Produced sessionally.
  • Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) 
    Hansard is the official report of parliamentary debates.  All speeches are included in Hansard. Proceedings without debates are not recorded.  Each volume has an index.  A sessional index is published every three years. Index entries are listed under names of MPs, and broad categories.  Most debates generated by a Bill occur at the Second Reading.  
    Hansard     is broadcast on radio on the AM network. 'Week in Parliament' is broadcast on Sundays.
    Uncorrected Hansards are available via Parliament's website.  See the internet section below. Advance Hansard goes on the internet within four days of debate.  A weeks worth of Hansard appear as three individual days.  The Library database Hansard has the full text of the transcripts,  from 1987. 
  • Parliamentary Bulletin

Issue of Parliamentary Bulletin Page within Parliamentary Bulletin


Published every week that the House sits. The Bulletin contains progress of Bills, presentation of papers and petitions, and the business scheduled for Select Committees.

  • Questions and Answers
    Available online via tParliament's website. See the internet section below. TVNZ films question time, and this is available on TVNZ's website.  To find these, click on the 'News' tab and then click on the 'Politics' tab. Also available on Sky TV. Oral Questions from 1995 and Written Answers from 1987 are searchable via the Library database Hansard. Oral Questions is published on the internet around 11.30 am. 
  • Notice paper 
  • Order Paper
    There are two versions of the Order paper, the Provisional and the Final. The Provisional Order Paper is available on the internet, the Friday prior to a Tuesday sitting. The Final Order Paper is available on Parliament's website, 10.30 am on the day of sitting.  See the internet section below.
  • Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives of New Zealand

The Appendix to the Journals contains parliamentary papers and reports printed by Order of the House of Representatives. Cumulative indexes are available, 1854-1963 in Special Collections, Level 1, General Library.

Government Department report in the Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives

The material is arranged by shoulder number.  Earlier issues are bound.  Unbound issues are in pamphlet boxes at the end of the bound sequence. Also available online as Parliamentary Papers. See the internet section below.

Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives Shoulder numbers

A Legislative and foreign affairs
B Finance, revenue, etc
C Land, agriculture and environment
D Resources and Energy
E Welfare and justice
F Communications
G General (Includes annual reports of Departments)
H Royal Commissions
I Select Committee Reports  (Not all Select Committee Reports are tabled in Parliament)

To find a detailed list of shoulder numbers check this site from University of Canterbury Library.

  • New Zealand Gazette.  Also available online. 
    The official newspaper of the Government.  There are two editions, the main edition and the customs edition.  Reports the day to day business of government -  proclamations, Orders in Council, a summary of Parliamentary proceedings, appointments to and resignations from all ministerial portfolios.  Current ministers are found in the New Zealand Official Year Book and on the government web pages. Recent reshuffles will be reported in newspapers.

Select Committee Reports top of page

Select Committees meet weekly.  A schedule is available from Parliament's website. See the internet section below.  The schedule records when a Select Committee is open to the public.  Proceedings of Select Committees are closed to the public.  Submissions to Select Committees are given in public, and are released.  Select Committees may make public statements via press releases and the internet. Some recent press releases are available from the Parliament's website.  See the internet section below.  Search newspaper indexes such as the Library databases Index New Zealand, and NewztextPlus, to find  press releases, or browse the government's web pages. Select Committee reports tabled in Parliament are published in the Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, at the shoulder no. I.  Recent NIAs (National Interest Analysis) are part of the Select Committee Report. 

Consult Parliamentary Bulletin, or Journals of the House of Representatives to track the progress of Select Committee reports, and when they are presented to the House.  Information on the shoulder number is included.

Consult Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives to find government responses to Select Committees. (Shoulder no. A5.) Unbound government responses are shelved in the pamphlet boxes with the A shoulder number.  Bound government responses are bound in with shoulder no. I (eg I A5)

Recent Select Committee reports are available on Parliament's website. See the internet section below.

E-journals top of page

Reference material top of page

Reference books are a good place to start researching a topic because the information is concise and written by experts. Use reference books for brief introductions, facts, or definitions. Some are in print, some are online. Some are in reference collections, some are on the open shelves.

Newspapers top of page

To find press releases or articles in New Zealand newspapers, search an index that indexes New Zealand newspapers, such as Index New Zealand, ANZ Reference Centre, Factiva or Newzindex.  Some libraries maintain indexes to their local newspapers, and have made these available over the internet, eg Christchurch City Libraries Papers Index.  Auckland Public Library's index to newspapers is now available via the Library database Superindex.

Selected full text of the major New Zealand newspapers is available in the Library database NewtextPlus. If the complete text is not available online, search Voyager, using the Serial title search, to see if our Library holds the newspaper. We keep back issues of the main New Zealand newspapers on microfilm. These are located in the Microtext Room, Ground Level, General Library. 

Databases top of page

Internet top of page

For further New Zealand government pages click here.

Copyright©The University of Auckland Library
Comments and suggestions to: Simona Traser
Last updated: 12 April, 2013