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On 19 September 2019, the Parliament established the joint-committee-family-lawJoint Select Committee on Australia’s Family Law System. The committee is to present its final report by 7 October 2020.

I am writing to draw your attention to the inquiry and to invite you or your organisation to make a submission to this inquiry. Submissions are due by 18 December 2019.

A copy of the committee’s terms of reference is attached and further information on the committee’s inquiry is available on the committee’s website. There is no requirement to address the full terms of reference in your submission, and you may choose to comment only on the terms of reference that are of interest or relevance to you.

As the committee is seeking to publicise its work as widely as possible, we would appreciate you referring this letter of invitation to any colleague or organisation you think would like to contribute to the inquiry. The committee has also developed a submission template for individuals to assist them in making a submission to the inquiry and address the terms of reference.

The committee prefers submissions to be submitted online. Alternatively, submissions may be sent by email to familylaw.sen@aph.gov.au as an attached Adobe PDF or MS Word format document, or in hard copy to the address below. E-mailed and hardcopy submissions should include your name, phone number and postal address (in the email, not the submission) so that we can verify them and/or contact you.

Please note that on receipt, submissions become committee documents and are made public only after a decision of the committee. Publication of submissions includes uploading them to the internet where they are available to the public, including to the media and other interested stakeholders.

The committee will normally make submissions public unless there is a request for confidentiality. If you would like your submission, or part of it, to be kept confidential, please make this request clear in the submission.

Any person making a submission must not release the submission without the approval of the committee. Submissions are covered by parliamentary privilege; however the unauthorised disclosure of a submission is not protected.

Information on Senate Committees, including notes to assist in the preparation of submissions is available at: http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Making_a_submission

If you have any questions about making a submission, or about the inquiry more generally, please contact the Committee Secretariat on familylaw.sen@aph.gov.au or on (02) 6277 3439.

Yours sincerely

Ann Palmer

Committee Secretary

Terms of Reference

That a joint select committee, to be known as the Joint Select Committee on Australia’s Family Law System, be established to inquire into and report on the following matters: