Erskine May's Parliamentary Practice, the procedural bible of the House of Commons, is about to lose its place as the inevitable reference guide for Australian parliamentarians. At the end of 1981 the House of Representatives Practice was published, joining the long established Australian Senate Practice to provide the first complete Australian guide to the procedures of both Houses of the Commonwealth Parliament. The old editions of May's Parliamentary Practice, reciting the procedure of the Commons at the turn of the century, have some residual importance for the Federal Parliament (of which more later) but that too is likely to disappear. Within a few years, May's will disappear from the shelves of parliamentary clerks in Canberra and be relegated to library shelves for the benefit of students of British politics and parliamentary affairs.

The Australian replacement of May's has been a long time coming. Mr JR Odgers produced his first edition of Australian Senate Practice in 1953. Revised editions followed fairly regularly, the fourth appearing in 1972 and the fifth (and still current) edition in 1976. But it was not until 1975 that the House of Representatives decided that it was proper to begin working on an equivalent and to put on record some of its answers to Mr Odgers.