06.09.2011
Issue 8 | 7 September 2011 View original format
Calling for feedback
As readers will be aware, on 19 August we released a Discussion Paper. Those of you who are referring to the full Discussion Paper as you write your submissions might perhaps have noticed that it’s big. Very big. It’s really seven DPs in one, given the coverage of the discrete areas under review.
First, a few words about that. The ALRC carries out a lot of research and consultation before we come up with the questions and proposals that we put to our stakeholders. We believe that is important that all of this work is fully documented. These documents are a reference for stakeholders requiring detailed explanation, they ultimately provide an evidence base for our final recommendations for reform, and they also become valuable reference material for other researchers in the field. But yes, all that documentation can become a little unwieldy.
Enter, the Summary Paper. The practice of producing separate summary versions of Discussion Papers and Final Reports is a relatively new one for the ALRC. The intention is to help stakeholders access and grasp the key issues quickly, without getting bogged down or bewildered by too much detail. The Summary Paper aims to provide the essential minimum for easy access to the ALRC’s thinking, particularly for stakeholders who already have considerable understanding of the various issues under review.
The Family Violence- Commonwealth Laws Discussion Paper Summary is probably the shortest summary document we’ve produced to date. After a brief introduction and overview, it provides a short abstract of each chapter, followed by the questions and proposals contained in that chapter. We would like to know if we’ve achieved the right balance with this formula.
As you write your submissions for this Inquiry (due 30 September!),
and the experience of using these Discussion Papers is fresh, we’d
really welcome any feedback about how you are using these publications,
and what you do and don’t find useful.
Provide feedback >>
Ongoing consultations
Following the release of the Discussion Paper the ALRC has begun undertaking a second round of consultations with key stakeholders.
Recently several members of the ALRC met with the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Deputy Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Executive Director and members of the Disability Rights and Sex and Age Discrimination units of the Australian Human Rights Commission to discuss the Inquiry. Next week members of the team will attend a meeting of the Superannuation Consultative Committee Secretariat of the ATO and will also attend the 1st National LGBTIQ Domestic Family Violence Conference. In addition, over the next month consultation trips are planned to Canberra, Brisbane and Perth and many consultations will also be conducted in Sydney and by telephone.
Consultations are a crucial way for the ALRC to engage with a range of stakeholders around Australia, as are the invaluable contributions of stakeholders in making written submissions that the ALRC can then draw upon in writing the Final Report.