Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) is the official name of the transcripts of debates in the New Zealand Parliament. New Zealand was one of the first countries to establish an independent team of Hansard reporters, 42 years before the British (Imperial) Parliament. An official record of debates has been kept continuously since 9 July 1867. Speeches made in the House of Representatives and the Legislative Council between 1867 and the commencement of Parliament in 1854 were compiled in 1885 from earlier newspaper reports, and this compilation also forms part of the New Zealand Hansard record.

The Hansard takes its name from Thomas Curson Hansard, who started publishing a daily record of proceedings in the British Parliament in the early 19th century.

History

For 13 years from the establishment of the New Zealand Parliament in Auckland in 1854 newspaper reports were the only record of what MPs said in debates in the Legislative Council and the House of Representatives. The accuracy of these reports often depended on the political leanings of the owners of the newspaper in which they were published, and consistency of reporting was a real problem,Evening Post, 16 April 1931, page 11 as noted in an article in the Wellington Independent newspaper in 1860:Wellington Independent, 9 October 1860, page 3 “These reports give you little notion of the reality. Some members … whose speeches are dreary beyond belief, and almost unintelligible as delivered in the House, [become] flowing oratory in the columns of the newspaper. While others… are shorn of their fair proportions, and their speeches reduced to mere notes… Members who usually talk to empty benches [appear] as prominent as those who electrify the gallery or are the life of the House.”

MP William Fitzherbert brought a motion to the House in 1856 calling for funds to be applied to "secure accurate and authentic reports of the substance and arguments of the speeches".Parliamentary Debates 1856–1858, 12 June 1856, page 152 Then in 1862 James FitzGerald (MP for Christchurch and owner of The Press) introduced a motion calling on the Government to take steps to secure the publication of "full and accurate reports of the debates in this House".Parliamentary Debates 1861–1863, 25 August 1862, page 606 Despite both motions being unanimously agreed, it was not until 1866 that a Select Committee, chaired by FitzGerald, was established to “consider and report as to the best manner in which the debates of the General Assembly can be reported and printed.”Parliamentary Debates 1864–1866, 5 July 1866, page 761

On 9 July 1867 a team of five reporters (AJ Dallas, George McIntyre, James Kinsella, ET Gillon, and William Mitchell who later drownedAuckland Star, 24 June 1898, page 5),Daily Southern Cross 14 October 1867, page 4New Zealand Herald, 12 July 1892, page 5New Zealand Herald, 25 March 1884, page 5 led by Chief Reporter C.C.N. Barron, produced the first official report of debates of the New Zealand Parliament.Evening Post, 11 July 1892, page 2Evening Post, 9 July 1888, page 2 One notable Hansard Reporter from the 1870s and 1880s was George Fisher, who was mayor of Wellington for four terms, member of Parliament for Wellington and Minister of Education and Commissioner of Trade and Customs.Otago Daily Times, 3 April 1884, page 4 Another notable early Hansard Reporter was Charles Melville Crombie, who later became Chief Commissioner of Taxes.Evening Post, 7 June 1894, page 2

Reporters worked in 15 minute "turns" and had to cover speeches in both debating chambers, regularly working until after midnight to finish the day's reports, taking notes using Pitman shorthand and then transcribing these by dictation. From the establishment of the Hansard team speeches were reported as fully as possible, although for many years it was regularly proposed that only summaries of speeches should be published.Evening Post, 9 July 1888, page 2 Reporters had to cope with speakers who had a variety of different accents and speaking pace, and had to learn the names of an increasing number of members, with the number of members in the House alone increasing from 37 in 1854 to 95 by 1882. Competent reporters with shorthand skills were scarce in New Zealand and men were brought in during parliamentary sessions from Australian parliaments to assist local reporters.

In 1884 Maurice FitzGerald, son of James FitzGerald, was engaged to compile from newspaper reports speeches made in Parliament between 1854 and 1867.Evening Post, 8 November 1884, page 2Hawke's Bay Herald, 10 November 1884, page 3Timaru Herald, 10 November 1884, page 2Hawke's Bay Herald, 11 November 1884, page 3 Maurice Fitzgerald completed this work in 1885.Letter from Maurice FitzGerald to Premier Robert Stout 22 August 1885, Archives NZ reference R24418249Te Aroha News, 24 April 1886, page 5 He died in 1886 (at 25 years of age) from tuberculosisEvening Post, 10 July 1886, page 2 before all five volumes of his compilation were printed.Parliamentary Debates 1864–1866, Postscript, page 1055Evening Post, 20 July 1886, page 2

New Zealand Hansard today Official transcripts of MPs' speeches in the House have been continuously published since 1867. Today Hansard is produced by a team of about 17 FTE Hansard editors within the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. Hansard is published on the New Zealand Parliament website each day the House sits, and later indexed bound volumes are produced.

Speeches are transcribed directly from digital recordings of the debate, with staff present in the debating chamber to monitor the debate by recording the sequence of speakers and any interjections. Interjections are reported only if the member speaking replies to them or remarks on them during the course of his or her speech. Hansard Editors follow strict rules on what changes they can make to the words MPs use in the debating chamber. Hansard is as close to verbatim as possible, although Hansard Editors remove repetitions and redundancies and make minor grammatical corrections. MPs are provided draft copies of their speeches at the same time that the speeches are first published on the Parliament website. MPs can request correction of inadvertent factual inaccuracies but they are unable to significantly change what they said in the House.New Zealand Parliament website, "What is Hansard?", Retrieved 13 September 2016

Timeline of establishment of Hansard in New Zealand Date Event or decision relevant to reporting of debates24 May 1854The General Assembly sat for the first time, with an upper house, the Legislative Council, consisting of 12 appointed Legislative Councillors, and a House of Representatives consisting of 37Proclamation from Government Gazette of 10 March 1853, New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, 12 March 1853, page 3 elected Members of the House.May/June 1854A "reporting club" of MPs was formed, consisting of James FitzGerald, Henry Sewell, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, Edward Jerningham Wakefield, James Macandrew, Hugh Carleton and William Cutten. Because of the lack of press reporters with shorthand skills this group undertook to take notes of speeches in the House, which would then be provided to each member who had spoken for checking, before being provided to newspapers for publication.Parliamentary Debates 1854–1855, 7 July 1854, page 184The Southern Cross, 19 September 1854, page 3 The collegiality of members of the reporting club was short-lived: by early July Henry Sewell complained that Edward Gibbon Wakefield "does not scruple here and there to doctor and color what has been really said, not absolutely falsifying, and yet giving slight touches which wholly alter the real character... his speeches are embellished throughout with cheers, as if the House sympathized heartily".12 June 1856MPs agreed a motion moved by William Fitzherbert calling for funds to be applied to "secure accurate and authentic reports of the substance and arguments of the speeches made by honorable members of the House"25 August 1862MPs agreed a motion moved by James FitzGerald calling on the Government to take steps to secure the publication of "full and accurate reports of the debates in this House"2 December 1863MPs reaffirm the motion moved by James FitzGerald calling on the Government to take steps to secure the publication of "full and accurate reports of the debates in this House"Parliamentary Debates 1861–1863, 2 December 1863, page 973 8 & 14 August 1865MPs agreed a motion moved by Frederick Weld: "That a Select Committee be appointed to superintend the revision of the reports of debates"Parliamentary Debates 1864–1866, 8 August 1865, page 257 A similar motion moved by James Crowe Richmond was passed in the Legislative CouncilParliamentary Debates 1864–1866, 14 August 1865, page 2985 & 17 July 1866MPs agreed a motion moved by Edward Stafford "That a Select Committee be appointed to consider and report as to the best manner in which the debates of the General Assembly can be reported and printed." This Committee reported to the House that the Government should eventually "engage a staff of competent reporters" but until that could be done the Wellington newspapers should be paid to "furnish full and accurate reports daily of the proceedings in both Houses."Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1866 Session I, F-03, 13 July 1866Daily Southern Cross, 30 July 1866, page 4Evening Post, 13 July 1866, page 2 However the House refused to agree a resolution moved by Committee Chairman James FitzGerald to enter into a contract with local newspaper proprietors, as had been proposed by the report.Parliamentary Debates 1864–1866, 17 July 1866, page 781The Press, 21 July 1866, page 2Wellington Independent, 19 July 1866, page 626 July 1866James FitzGerald drew the House's attention to the fact that newspapers were deliberately omitting to report the speeches, or even the name, of a certain member. A note in Hansard indicates that FitzGerald was referring to the Wellington newspapers purposely omitting any mention of Francis Dillon Bell.Parliamentary Debates 1864–1866, 26 July 1866, page 81728 September 1866Thomas MacKenzie, proprietor of the Wellington Independent newspaper was summoned to appear before the House for a "breach of Privilege" by publishing a report of parliamentary debates that indicated that Arthur John Burns (Member for Caversham) had acted maliciously by raising a certain matter in House.New Zealand Herald, 8 October 1866, page 5Wellington Independent, 16 October 1866, page 6Wellington Independent, 2 October 1866, page 59 July 1867Clarke Charles Netterville Barron is appointed as Chief Reporter and tasked with establishing a team of reporters to record debates in both Houses of Parliament.