Submissions

Submissions opened on 8 July 2021, and closed on 13 October 2023. In that time, the Commission received more than 5,000 submissions that covered a range of issues relating to the Royal Commission’s terms of reference.

The Commissioners thank those who have made submissions for sharing their important stories, knowledge and information – your stories have been heard.

These submissions are published without any adoption or endorsement by the Royal Commission and without any comment by the Royal Commission on the material contained in them.

Submissions have been published with the consent of the author. If you consented to the Commission publishing your submission it may have been shared on the website, in public reports, in papers, at hearings or in other forums. Those who provided consent for publication could choose whether their submission was published under their name or anonymously – it was up to them whether their name accompanied their story. If someone made a submission on behalf of another person, such as a family member, friend or colleague, we encouraged them to seek that person’s permission before doing so. The Commission did not publish submissions sharing the story of another living person without that person’s consent.

Due to the nature of the submissions received, not all submissions could be published. The Royal Commission reserved the right not to publish certain submissions or to redact information within a submission. This included circumstances where the information was not relevant to the terms of reference, or where matters were graphic/distressing or where there were privacy concerns about the information included.

The Royal Commission was at all times committed to ensuring that all submissions published on the website were suitable for external release. The process of reviewing, redacting, ensuring that the content was suitable for publication and finally uploading the submissions was extensive and could be lengthy.