Run a parliamentary committee

Getting started

• Ask students to identify three key areas of concern for themselves and their peers. As a class, discuss and decide upon a topic relevant to your students and to the curriculum, such as the voting age in Australia. Decide which aspect of this topic will be investigated, such as whether the voting age should be lowered to 16. If you'd like to see the kinds of issues the Parliament has been discussing recently, have a look at the Australian Parliament House website and streaming portal to look at recordings of Question Time, Committees, Constituency Statements and Matters of Public Importance.
• Prepare terms of reference – a set of 2-3 guidelines – which explain the exact areas that the committee will investigate. Ensure your terms of reference specify exactly what the committee wants to learn about this topic. For example, the advantages and disadvantages of giving 16- and 17-year-old Australians the right to vote, and what changes would need to be made to enable 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in elections.
• As a class, discuss who might wish to provide relevant information or express an opinion to the committee—such as youth organisations, electoral organisations, democratic associations. These groups are called witness groups.
  Identify which witness groups your committee will question at a hearing in order to receive a range of perspectives about the issue.
   

Activity (90 minutes)

1. Choose 5–6 students to be committee members. One of these students will be the committee chair, who will run the hearing.
2. Divide the rest of the students into witness groups, with 3–5 students per group. They will answer questions from the committee. One student from each group will be the spokesperson and will read a short, prepared statement when their group gives evidence.
3. Encourage students to understand that:
   • members of Parliament are there to ask questions and to investigate. They do not argue with witness groups, they just want information.
   • witness groups may want to persuade the committee to support their position. They should support their viewpoint with quality information and research.
4. Ask each witness group to research and prepare evidence that supports their point of view, and to write a short opening statement. This activity works best when students have enough time to research the topic of investigation in some detail.
5. Ask the committee to do broad research into the topic and to prepare questions to ask the witness groups. The questions for each witness group should be relevant to that group and should aim to gain information described in the terms of reference.
6. Turn the classroom into a committee room by arranging chairs and tables as shown in the seating plan in the toolkit.
7. Run the committee hearing. You can follow this process in the master script:
   • The committee chair starts the hearing by introducing the committee, outlining the terms of reference and listing the witness groups.
   • The committee chair invites the first witness group to the table, and to state their names for the Hansard record.
   • The committee chair invites the first witness group to make its opening statement.
   • The spokesperson of the witness group makes a brief opening statement outlining the group's position, and what it hopes the Parliament will do regarding the issue.
   • The committee chair invites all committee members to ask the witness group questions. Committee members are encouraged to take turns answering the questions. 
   • The committee chair thanks the witness group for attending and invites the next witness group to the table.
   • Repeat previous steps until all witness groups have given evidence.
   • The committee hearing finishes when the committee chair reads the closing statement.
8. As a class, write a report on the inquiry using the scaffold in the toolkit. The report should outline what the committee thinks the Parliament should do about the issue they have investigated. 
9. Explain that the report would now be tabled – presented – in Parliament and may inform law-making decisions. 

Discussion questions

• What factors do you think influenced the perspectives of the witness groups? 
• Did the committee's recommendations reflect the information they were given by the witness groups?
• Was the committee's report unanimous or was there disagreement amongst the committee?
• What action might the government take next based on the results of your inquiry?

Extension

Investigate a current parliamentary committee and write a submission, using the Write a committee submission classroom activity. You can find information on current committees of the Australian Parliament on the committees page of the Australian Parliament House website.

• Committees
• Getting involved
• Years 5+6
• Years 7+8