More thorough access to parliamentary records, please

More thorough access to parliamentary records, please
Letter from Tan Eng Keong
04:46 AM Apr 25, 2011
I REFER to recent reports in which Minister Lui Tuck Yew is quoted as saying the Government has put up a lot of information on its websites. However, it is odd that key pieces of information are not easily found online.

The first is the Hansard or Parliamentary Record. Only reports from Nov 2, 2006 are accessible on the Parliament website. The public has no online access to any reports prior to 2006. As a comparison, the UK Hansard from the year 1803 is freely available online.
The second is the Subsidiary Legislation of Singapore. While the main Statutes are freely available on the Attorney-General Chambers' website, the subsidiary legislation are not. There may be subsidiary legislation posted on the websites of individual government ministries or agencies, but these are piecemeal in nature. The electronic gazette, which includes the Subsidiary Legislation, is only available free for public viewing for five days.
Why is it difficult for the public to fully access the laws of Singapore or the Parliamentary Record, when these are surely of public interest? The Hansard is of greater interest now due to the upcoming elections, as citizens would want to know which MPs have spoken up on which issues in the past.
http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC110425-0000245/More-thorough-access-to-parliamentary-records,-please
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This post was responded to by:
27Apr2011: New system will give free access to subsidiary legislation (Li Jin Haw/ AGC).
27Apr2011: More reports might go online (Yip Siew Joo Official Reports Department Parliament Secretariat)