Your role: Making a Submission
You can participate in an inquiry by making a submission, or appearing as a witness at a public hearing. If you are interested in the latter, please let us know and we can speak about how to make that happen.
What is a submission?
A submission could look like a written document, prose, artwork, film, photography, song and/or dance. Your submissions may include lived experience, facts, opinions, recommendations or suggested solutions to the issues the committee is considering.
We also recommend any artwork submissions to be accompanied by a written artist statement to support the meaning, process and relevance to the Genocide Bill.
Why make a submission?
Submissions add to a committee’s knowledge and understanding of an issue based on people’s professional knowledge and personal experiences via submissions, which may influence the committee’s recommendations.
This means that your experiences, perspectives and ideas will be read by the committee secretariat with the power to shift consciousness, build awareness and shape legislation around the relevant policy presented to the inquiry.
They will be presented to and considered by the committee and be on the public record unless you request them not to be. Your submission may also be used in the final report. So, more people highlighting the truth does have an impact.
This is the first time there has been a national inquiry into the Attorney General’s powers around genocide and other atrocity crime prosecutions.
Anyone is welcome to make a submission - whether individuals or organisations. Your submission can be based on genocide in this country and/or overseas.
We recognise the subject of genocide is incredibly traumatic and anonymous submissions are definitely a possibility. We acknowledge the vulnerability of making a submission and we honour the privacy and safety in your truth-telling.
In addition to receiving written submissions, committees may conduct public hearings to gather evidence by speaking to people directly. If you would like to attend a public hearing, please get in touch with our office.
Submission Tips
The best submissions:
- are relevant and highlight your own perspective
- are concise, generally no longer than four to five pages
- begin with a short introduction about yourself or the organisation you represent
- emphasise the key points so that they are clear
- outline not only what the issues are but how problems can be addressed, as the committee looks to submissions for ideas to make recommendations
- only include documents that directly relate to your key points
- only include information you would be happy to see published on the internet.
Further submission information can be found here and an easy English guide to making a submission can be found here.
If you need assistance in completing your submission you can contact the committee directly on 02 6277 3560 or our office on 03 9070 1950.
Send it
The deadline for submissions is July 26, 2024
When you have finished your submission, there are 3 ways to send it to the committee.
| Via their website: | Upload your submission here |
| Via email: | [email protected] |
| Via mail: |
Committee Secretary Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 |
Find out more:
The Inquiry: What is it and next steps