Guides for departments

Use this guide for an overview of tabling including what you need to provide to parliament to table a document — letters, copies etc.

If there is no Act requiring a document to be tabled, the document can still be tabled by leave. Use this guide for an explanation of ‘leave’ and the procedure for tabling by leave. 

Parliament can agree to give a document additional protection when it is tabled. When a document has this additional protection, it is covered by absolute privilege and the authors cannot be sued over the content.

Use this guide for an explanation of parliamentary privilege and how your document can receive that additional protection.

It also includes the text that must be printed in those documents.

When a parliamentary committee report makes recommendations to the Government, a minister must table a government response addressing those recommendations. This guide sets out how to table the government response in Parliament. What you need to do depends on what type of committee it is.

Some documents can be tabled on a non-sitting day. Use this guide to help you work out if your document can be tabled on a non-sitting day and the procedure for tabling on a non-sitting day.

Use this guide if you need to correct an error in a document after your minister/agency has tabled the document in Parliament. The guide sets out who to contact initially, the types of errors, and the process for correcting an error.

Use this guide if you need to ‘lodge’ a document with the Clerk of the Parliaments under section 32(3) and (4) of the Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984.