Making a submission

The closing date for submissions to this Issues Paper is 7 May 2018.

Online submission form

The ALRC strongly encourages online submissions directly through the ALRC website where an online submission form will allow you to respond to individual proposals and questions: <www.alrc.gov.au/content/family-law-system-ip48-submission> Once you have logged into the site, you will be able to save your work, edit your responses, and leave and re-enter the site as many times as you need to before lodging your final submission. You may respond to as many or as few proposals and questions as you wish. There is space at the end of the form for any additional comments.

Further instructions are available on the site. If you have any difficulties using the online submission form, please email web@alrc.gov.au, or phone +61 2 8238 6305.

Alternatively, pre-prepared submissions may be mailed, faxed or emailed, to:

The Executive Director
Australian Law Reform Commission
GPO Box 3708
Sydney NSW 2001
Email: familylaw@alrc.gov.au
Facsimile: +61 2 8238 6363

Open inquiry policy

As submissions provide important evidence to each inquiry, it is common for the ALRC to draw upon the contents of submissions and quote from them or refer to them in publications.

The ALRC accepts public and confidential submissions. Public submissions are published on the ALRC website. The ALRC removes private addresses and contact details before publishing submissions.

Confidential submissions are not published, but may still be the subject of a Freedom of Information request. The ALRC treats each submission as public unless there is a clear indication that a submission is intended to be confidential.

The ALRC does not publish anonymous submissions. The ALRC does not publish submissions that breach applicable laws, that may be defamatory, or that may breach the privacy of any individual, including the submitter. The ALRC may in some cases withhold the name of a submitter for privacy considerations. Publication of public submissions is at the discretion of the ALRC.

If your submission contains information about a court proceeding, including a proceeding under the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) (Family Law Act), you should carefully consider the terms of any order made by a court in that proceeding relating to the disclosure of information. For example, it is an offence under s 102PK of the Family Law Act to contravene a suppression order or a non-publication order made under s 102PE of the Family Law Act. The ALRC cannot publish submissions that identify parties to family law proceedings, and any submissions that do so will be treated as confidential.

See the ALRC policy on submissions and inquiry material for more information: www.alrc.gov.au/about/making-submission.