Write a committee submission

Getting started

• Decide whether you want to choose your own topic or choose an issue which is being currently investigated in a committee inquiry.
• If you want to choose your own topic, decide on an issue which is relevant to the curriculum and about which your students would like to have their say, such as the voting age then follow the Writing a submission instructions below.
• You can investigate current inquiries being held by committees of the Australian Parliament on the Australian Parliament House Committees page. Each inquiry will have terms of reference which specify the scope and details of the issue. You can also check the website of your state or territory parliament for information on their current committee inquiries. If you choose to write your submission for a state or territory committee inquiry, make sure you check their submission guidelines, as they could be different from the ones listed here.
  
  • • Australian Capital Territory
    • New South Wales
    • Northern Territory
    • Queensland
    • South Australia
    • Tasmania
    • Victoria
    • Western Australia
• If you decide to write a submission for a current committee, ensure that you have permission from the carers of your students before you send it in and be aware of the following:
  
  • Committee inquiries are serious matters and while committees appreciate hearing from a wide variety of submitters, students should take the opportunity to have their voices heard in the parliament seriously.
  • If submissions are accepted, they belong to the committee and are likely to be published online.
  • Submissions may be quoted in an official report or spoken about in parliament.
  • You and your students could be invited to attend a committee hearing and speak more about your submission.

Activity (60 minutes)

1. Look at examples of submissions that committees have received to get an idea of how submissions can be written. You can select an inquiry to view on the Australian Parliament House Committees page, and click submissions in the right hand panel under About this inquiry.
2. Students can write a submission as a class, in small groups or individually. To help students structure their submission, you may wish to use the Committee submission scaffold and checklist in the Teacher toolkit. If you are using this activity in conjunction with the Run a parliamentary committee classroom activity, put your students into witness groups and ask them to draft a submission from the perspective of the group they represent.
3. Committee submissions must:
   • be written for the purposes of the inquiry
   • not be previously published, for example in a school newsletter or local paper
   • address some or all of the terms of reference
   • be clearly formatted (that means page numbers and a summary if the submission is long).
4. You may like to include additional guidelines for your students including a word count and a reference list.
5. Submit your submission using the information on the Australian Parliament House Lodge my submission page. You should include your contact details separate to the main submission as the committee might wish to talk to you further or invite you to appear at a hearing.
6. Students can reflect on the committee process by completing the Committee submissions worksheet.

Discussion questions

• Research and personal experience are both useful to a committee when they are investigating an issue. How do you think each type of submission helps the committee?
• Did your submission agree with the other submissions to the same inquiry? Did your submission provide the committee with any information they had not received from any other submissions?
   

Extension

Take your submission to a committee hearing by completing the Run a parliamentary committee classroom activity.

View the upcoming public hearings and watch one live on @AUSparliamentLive or on-demand through ParlView.

• Committees
• Getting involved
• Years 7+8
• Senior secondary