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Making
a Written Submission to an Inquiry
The Education and Training Committee welcomes submissions from a broad
range of stakeholders. The following provides some guidance for the
presentation and preparation of a submission.
Who may make a submission?
Any person or organisation can make a submission to the Education and
Training Committee. There is no restriction. Individuals, community
groups, private organisations and representatives of government departments
and agencies. Anyone or any body interested in an Inquiry currently
before the Committee can make a submission.
Terms of reference
Before preparing your submission, it is important that you read the
terms of reference carefully. The Committee advertises its terms of
reference, calls for submissions and identifies a closing date in the
daily press. If an issue is of obvious local concern, advertisements
will also appear in regional and district newspapers.
Copies of the terms of reference can be obtained via the website or
by contacting the office.
Preparing a submission
It is most important that your submission address the terms of reference.
You do not have to comment on every aspect of the terms of reference.
Equally, you do not have to limit yourself to just one aspect.
Your submission can contain factual information, opinion or both. You
might wish to draw the attention of the Committee to something relevant
to the Inquiry. You might choose to emphasise solutions to the matter
or issue before the Committee. This is entirely your choice. The only
criterion is that whatever you say, however you say it, must address
some aspect of the terms of reference.
Form submission should take
There is no specific method for organising or presenting a submission.
Your contribution can take the form of a letter, a short summary paper
or a longer research document. You may include relevant data in appendices
or incorporate them in the body of the text. Be sure that the structure,
argument and conclusions of your submission are clear.
Please observe the following technical requirements:
- use A4
paper. This helps with
reproduction and distribution of your submission to Committee members.
- present a typed submission.
If this is not possible, a handwritten submission is acceptable; please
ensure that your handwriting is legible.
- sign the submission. All
submissions must contain an original signature. If you are representing
an organisation, please indicate your position in and if relevant,
specify at what level the submission has been authorised (eg branch,
executive, president, sub-committee, executive committee, national
body).
- submit a disk copy or email a copy of
the submission to etc@parliament.vic.gov.au if possible.
- supplementary material. You may
wish to support your submission with publications, video, photographs,
objects or other materials. These may be loaned or donated.
Confidentiality
All submissions, unless deemed confidential, are public documents.
Subject to the Committee’s approval, all submissions are available
for public scrutiny. An author should not, however, publish all or
part of a submission without the Committee’s authorisation.
A request should accompany a submission if you wish all or part of
it to be treated as confidential. The Committee will consider the
request and advise you of its decision.
Parliamentary privilege
Submissions to the Education and Training Committee are protected
by parliamentary privilege. Submissions are considered to be the same
as evidence taken by a Committee in a public hearing. As such nothing
in a submission can give rise to legal action against the author or
be subject to proceedings in a court of law.
Public hearings
At times, the Committee may wish to discuss a matter raised in your
submission. If this occurs, the Committee will contact you and invite
you to appear in a public hearing.
> > >
Giving Evidence at a Public Hearing
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