Australia’s Open Government Forum is developing Australia’s third National Action Plan (NAP3) in consultation with civil society and government. The NAP3 will outline commitments by the Australian Government to activities that promote transparency, accountability and collaboration between the government, civil society and the business community.
The Open Government Forum (forum) agreed on a co-creation process in June 2023. This process outlined 2 phases of public consultation. We undertook Phase 1 public consultation through an online survey from 21 August 2023 – 17 September 2023.
The forum established 3 working groups to consider, develop and prioritise potential commitments for inclusion in Australia’s third National Action Plan. Phase 1 consultation focused on the co-creation process and the working group themes:
We received 31 responses to this consultation, which included 1 emailed submission. Submissions were received from a range of stakeholders, including businesses, representative bodies, not-for-profit groups, academics and individuals.
The responses included helpful suggestions to support the development of commitments for Australia’s next National Action Plan.
A majority of stakeholders stated that the consultation provided appropriate opportunities to consult and that they supported the 3 themes. We thank everyone who took the time to engage with us and provide their feedback.
Analysis and summary of the responses was provided to all Working Group members and included in the meeting papers for the fourth forum meeting on 5 October 2023. There was clear alignment between most of the responses and the key priority areas that were identified by the Working Groups.
The Working Groups used the consultation responses to inform the development of potential commitments for NAP3. Read the consultation analysis report and further updates on the progress of NAP3 at the Australia’s Open Government Partnership site. The forum will consult on the draft commitments during Phase 2 consultation.
In July 2023, we sought public submissions for a proposal to amend the Statutory Declarations Act 1959 and the Statutory Declarations Regulations 2018 to introduce new ways of executing Commonwealth statutory declarations.
The framework would allow a Commonwealth statutory declaration to be executed in any of the following ways:
We received written submissions from a range of stakeholders, including interest groups, academics and individuals. Stakeholders noted that the proposal would provide options for making statutory declarations that will increase accessibility for all Australians, regardless of their circumstances.
Stakeholders generally noted that electronic execution can save individuals and small businesses time and money, that the temporary measures have worked effectively, and that the COVID temporary measures should be retained. Stakeholders were also strongly of the opinion that the traditional, paper-based method be retained.
The digital option was also well received. Stakeholders noted the reform would have the following benefits:
The digital option was seen to reduce the risk of invalid declarations (e.g. failure to comply with the formalities). The ability to leverage an individual’s established digital identity with appropriate protections would also result in welcome efficiencies and flexibility, saving time and money. Some stakeholders supported the digital option, provided that there were appropriate privacy protections, data security, and fraud detection and prevention measures.
Thank you to all who provided a response.
The input we received made a substantial contribution to the development of the final proposed reform, including a number of safeguards that will address the issues raised by stakeholders.
The Attorney-General introduced the Statutory Declarations Amendment Bill 2023 into the House of Representatives on 7 September 2023. Access the Bill and accompanying Explanatory Memorandum on the Australian Parliament House website.
The Administrative Review Taskforce (Taskforce) conducted public consultation on reform to the administrative review system between April and May 2023. An Issues Paper was published seeking views on the development of a new federal administrative review body. The Issues Paper asked 67 questions on a wide range of matters relating to the design of the new federal administrative review body.
We sought public input through:
During the consultation period, we spoke with:
We received 287 short survey responses and 120 submissions in response to the Issues Paper.
Feedback provided through the public consultation is being used to inform the development of legislation and to plan the implementation of the new federal administrative review body.
The Expert Advisory Group, chaired by former High Court Justice, the Hon. Patrick Keane AC KC, has considered the results of consultation to inform their advice to government on the reform.
The Administrative Review Taskforce (Taskforce) conducted public consultation on reform to the administrative review system between April and May 2023. An Issues Paper was published seeking views on the development of a new federal administrative review body. The Issues Paper asked 67 questions on a wide range of matters relating to the design of the new federal administrative review body.
We sought public input through:
During the consultation period, we spoke with:
We received 287 short survey responses and 120 submissions in response to the Issues Paper.
Feedback provided through the public consultation is being used to inform the development of legislation and to plan the implementation of the new federal administrative review body.
The Expert Advisory Group, chaired by former High Court Justice, the Hon. Patrick Keane AC KC, has considered the results of consultation to inform their advice to government on the reform.
As part of our review of 4 sunsetting legislative instruments under the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth), we sought stakeholder feedback on the operation of and potential changes to the instruments.
The 4 sunsetting instruments are:
We received 4 responses to the consultation. We thank everyone who took the time to provide us with their feedback. The responses included helpful, technical suggestions to aid the implementation of the proposed changes, as well as useful insights into the operation of the instruments in their current form.
We are using the feedback received to inform proposed changes to the instruments, and are workshopping the suggestions received with key stakeholders. The instruments are due to sunset on 1 October 2023.
On 16 February 2023, the Attorney-General publicly released the Privacy Act Review Report. The report put forward 116 proposals for reform of Australia’s privacy framework, aimed at clarifying the scope of the Privacy Act, uplifting protections for individuals, providing clarity to regulated entities and enhancing enforcement mechanisms.
We undertook public consultation to inform the Australian Government’s response to the Privacy Act Review Report through an online survey. We received written submissions from individuals and public and private entities.
As part of this consultation, we received approximately 500 written submissions and held further meetings to understand stakeholder views on the proposed reforms. Thank you to everyone who took the time to engage with us and provide their feedback.
The Australian Government has used the feedback received during the consultation period to inform its response to the Privacy Act Review Report, which was released on 28 September 2023.
On 13 September 2022, the Attorney-General released the Terms of Reference for a Targeted Review of Divisions 270 and 271 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) (the Targeted Review). On 7 December 2022, the Attorney-General released the discussion paper for the Targeted Review, initiating a 3-month public consultation period. The discussion paper set out key areas of focus for the targeted review and included 42 discussion questions.
Read the Discussion Paper [PDF 1.1MB] for the Targeted Review.
We sought public input through an online survey or via written submission and conducted targeted consultations.
The Targeted Review consultation received 30 written submissions and survey responses. During the consultation period we conducted 16 targeted consultation sessions with interested stakeholders, both in person and online, involving 49 organisations, including government, civil society and academia. We also spoke with victims and survivors.
Submissions to the review, including responses to the online survey, will be published shortly, with the exception of a small number of submissions that are confidential.
The Targeted Review considered all submissions and responses received as part of the consultation. The findings report is now publicly available. We would like to acknowledge the contribution of participants to the consultation processes.
The report has 22 findings. Key themes informing the findings include:
Feedback received during the Targeted Review and resulting findings will inform future legal and policy work to strengthen Australia’s response to modern slavery.
From 30 January to 27 February 2023, we sought feedback on an exposure draft of the Family Law Amendment Bill 2023 (the Bill). The draft Bill proposed a streamlined parenting framework, including by simplifying the ‘best interests factors’ a court must consider in determining parenting arrangements, and removing the ‘presumption of equal shared parental responsibility’ and associated time considerations.
The draft legislation also proposed to:
The release of the draft Bill was an opportunity for the community to provide feedback on the proposed amendments.
We prepared a consultation paper to explain the exposure draft and sought stakeholder views on key issues. We invited submissions in response to the wording of the proposed amendments and, in particular, to the specific consultation questions set out in the paper.
We received approximately 450 responses to the exposure draft of the Bill, either via our website through Citizen Space or our dedicated email address.
Most stakeholders were supportive of the policy intention of the Bill, particularly the focus on safety and simplification. Key themes of feedback on the exposure draft were as follows:
A significant volume of technical feedback was provided by submitters on all Schedules of the Bill.
As a result of the consultation process, a number of important changes were made to the Bill to ensure the reforms best support Australian children and families:
Further amendments were made to the Bill following the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee Report issued on 24 August 2023 and as a result of further consultation and stakeholder submissions to the committee. These include:
We have published submissions where we have received permission from the author to do so. Some submissions have been redacted to avoid breaching section 121 of the Family Law Act, for privacy considerations and where there are concerns about copyrighted material.
The Family Law Amendment Bill 2023 passed the Senate, with amendments, on 19 October 2023. The House of Representatives agreed to the Senate amendments on 19 October 2023.
The Governor-General gave Royal Assent to the Bill on 6 November, 2023. It is now the Family Law Amendment Act 2023 (Act No. 87 of 2023). Most of the changes to the law will apply from 6 May 2024.
Information related to the passage of the Bill, including the text of the Bill, the amendments, the explanatory memorandums and all speeches are available online. Read the media release containing an overview of the changes.
The Australian Government is considering the merits and design of a federal judicial commission that could independently examine and deal with complaints made to it about federal judges. We invited submissions on the model and key features of a federal judicial commission, addressing the questions and themes set out in the discussion paper, Scoping the Establishment of a Federal Judicial Commission.
We received 57 written submissions in response to the consultation from a range of organisations and individuals. Thank you to everyone who took the time to provide their views.
The submissions we received are informing our advice to government on the merits and design of a federal judicial commission.
An Issues Paper was released in August 2022 to initiate a 3-month public consultation period. The Issues Paper set out key areas of focus for the review and included 27 targeted consultation questions. Topics included the impact of the Modern Slavery Act and administration and enforcement of compliance with the reporting requirement.
Read the Issues Paper [PDF] for the review.
We sought public input to the review through 5 consultation avenues:
During the public consultation period, 38 targeted consultations were held with 285 representatives from government and non-government organisations including business, civil society and academia. In addition to the formal public consultation program, we met with individuals and committees with a strong practical connection to Australian Government modern slavery policy and practice. A total of 65 engagements were undertaken, including consultations, meetings, presentations and events.
The review received 136 written submissions and 30 responses to the online questionnaire. The review received 496 responses to the online survey for reporting entities. An overview of survey results is included in the Review Report.
A diversity of views was expressed during the consultations. These are discussed in detail in the Review Report.
We and Professor John McMillan, AO, review lead, would like to acknowledge everyone’s contribution to the review through the extensive consultation processes.
The review considered all submissions and responses received as part of the Review Report. On 25 May 2023, the government tabled the report in Parliament.
The report made 30 recommendations for government consideration, including:
On 16 September 2022, the Attorney-General of Australia, the Hon Mark Dreyfus KC MP, announced the commencement of a public consultation on a draft of the National Principles to Address Coercive Control. The consultation process was open until 11 November 2022 and included an online survey, a series of targeted roundtable consultations and engagement with an expert Advisory Group comprised of victim-survivor advocates, family and domestic violence experts and representatives of people at increased risk of coercive control.
We heard from more than 400 stakeholders through this consultation process. You can find a summary of the statistics and key findings from this consultation on the Attorney-General’s Department website.
Feedback from this consultation is informing revisions to the National Principles. A revised version will be finalised by the Standing Council of Attorneys-General later in 2023.
An exposure draft of the Federal Court of Australia Amendment (Extending Criminal Jurisdiction and Other Measures) Bill was released inviting feedback from the public from 4 to 31 October 2022. We were particularly interested in feedback from stakeholders including heads of jurisdiction, state and territory justice departments and directors of public prosecutions, law societies and bar associations. The purpose of this consultation was to identify potential improvements to the operational effectiveness of the Bill.
We received 8 submissions during the public consultation period from state and territory entities, legal practitioners and other key members of the legal community. We thank everyone who took the time to provide us with their feedback. The responses included helpful, technical suggestions to aid the implementation of the Bill.
Feedback from this consultation informed revisions to the Bill to clarify its operation.
The Australian Government’s first Implementation Plan under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap included funding for culturally safe and appropriate family dispute resolution (FDR) for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families. To design the new services, we engaged with stakeholders across government, the Coalition of Peaks, community organisations and interested community members between 1 February and 8 April 2022.
Over 60 individuals and organisations participated in a number of virtual meetings and workshops during the consultation period. We also received 22 written submissions. Participants came from locations across Australia, and brought a wealth of experience and expertise. This included representatives from:
Key findings from the consultation process included:
We have used the feedback and information shared during the consultation process to inform the Grant Opportunity Guidelines for the new First Nations Family Dispute Resolution services. The information will also continue to inform future policy development and decisions.
We recently ran a grant selection process for the new services. We ensured there was Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander representation on the Selection Advisory Panel for the grant round, as stakeholders identified this as important during the consultation process. The new services are expected to commence in early 2023.
We thank all those involved in the consultation process for their time and engagement with the project, and for sharing their views, information and ideas.
In February 2022, we asked for feedback on options to implement 6 legislative recommendations from the Respect@Work Report, namely:
As part of this consultation, we met with stakeholders and sought the views of the public on topics raised in the consultation paper through an online survey. We received 95 survey responses from a variety of stakeholders. This included:
The majority of stakeholders supported the implementation of the recommendations, with some variation in views on how best to implement them.
Thank you to everyone who provided a response.
We used the feedback to progress work on these recommendations.
The feedback also informed the development of the Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Act 2022. That Act took effect on 13 December 2022 (with the exception of some compliance functions), implementing 6 legislative recommendations of the Respect@Work Report (recommendations 16, 17, 18, 19, 23 and 43).
The government has referred the issue of costs in discrimination proceedings to us for review. We released a consultation paper as part of this review, inviting submissions to determine an appropriate costs protection model for Commonwealth discrimination matters that proceed to court.
We asked people to share their views and feedback on any issues or impediments to people coming forward and sharing information with Royal Commissions. We did this as part of a review of how the Royal Commissions Act 1902 (Cth) operates to protect sensitive information given, or sought to be given, to a Royal Commission.
Feedback in submissions to the review was generally positive and indicated that the new confidentiality protections implemented by the Royal Commissions Amendment (Protection of Information) Act 2021 have been helpful in terms of giving people greater confidence to share stories and experiences with the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability.
Thank you to everyone who provided a response.
The feedback received has been used to inform the final report of the review.
The report identifies several possible legislative amendments to the Royal Commissions Act for further consideration:
As part of our review of the Privacy Act 1988, we sought further feedback on potential changes to the Act.
These changes covered a broad range of topics, including:
We received over 200 responses to the consultation from a range of stakeholders and individuals. Thank you to everyone who took the time to provide us with their feedback.
We have used the feedback received to inform proposed reforms set out in the Privacy Act Review Report, which was released on 16 February 2023. We have also sought further feedback to inform the government response to the Privacy Act Review Report.
In late October 2021 we released a consultation paper on ‘Improving the competency and accountability of family report writers’ following recommendations from the Australian Law Reform Commission and the Joint Select Committee’s review into the family law system.
We asked stakeholders 17 core questions about the following key issues:
We received 96 submissions from a variety of stakeholders. This included:
The submissions received provide overwhelming support for action that increases the competency and accountability of family report writers. More than 90% of stakeholders indicated support for reform, although stakeholders differed on the specific mechanisms and entities that would be best placed to achieve this.
Here are some of the key findings from the consultation process:
Read a summary of the responses to the questions in the Consultation Paper:
We are grateful for and wish to thank everyone who made submissions and engaged on this important issue.
We have used the feedback and information shared during this consultation process to inform proposed reforms to the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth).
The Australian Government has developed the Family Law Amendment Bill 2023, which aims to address some of the most important issues raised around children and to place their best interests at the centre of the family law system. The Bill includes a measure which will give government the power to make regulations that set standards and requirements for family report writers.
Public consultation on the Family Law Amendment Bill 2023 is now open and we encourage you to share your views.
These changes are just the first step in moving towards ensuring the competency and accountability of family report writers. The government will need to establish the details of the standards and requirements in regulations and will continue to engage with stakeholders throughout this process. The introduction of any new standards and requirements would be staged appropriately to ensure that affected stakeholders have sufficient time to prepare for the change.
We sought public submissions on behalf of the Legislation Act Review Committee as part of a broad review of all aspects of the operation of the Legislation Act 2003 (Cth), which was required by section 59 of the Act.
The Review Committee received 33 written submissions from a range of stakeholders, including government agencies, interest groups and academics. Stakeholder submissions broadly acknowledged the important functions of the Act as a mechanism for managing Commonwealth Acts and instruments, and largely agreed that the existing objectives of the Act are being achieved and remain appropriate.
Thank you to all who provided a response.
The Review Committee considered all submissions received as part of the final report of the review. On 3 August 2022, the Attorney-General tabled the final report in Parliament.
The Review Committee found the Act remains fit for purpose. The report made 28 recommendations for further consideration. These include:
In the May 2021 Budget, the Australian Government announced increased funding for Children’s Contact Services (CCS), including funding to establish 20 additional CCS across Australia.
We sought your feedback on a draft methodology to estimate demand for new CCS by Statistical Level Area Level 4 (SA4) in order to determine the location for the new CCS.
We received a total of 81 submissions to our consultation.
Responses came from across Australia and included submissions from citizens, family law professionals and service providers.
Stakeholder feedback on the draft methodology indicated:
Other feedback included:
The input we received made a substantial contribution to the final methodology used to determine the 20 locations selected.
The final methodology is based on the 3 factors that received the greatest amount of support in the consultation.
It includes a new proximity measure, and considers proximity to be the most significant factor in estimating demand. It also includes a more holistic measure of disadvantage.
The final 20 locations selected are: