General Practice Guideline

Introduction

1. This Practice Guideline relates to the conduct of the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme ("the Commission"). It should be read in conjunction with the Royal Commissions Act 1902 (Cth) ("the Act") and the Terms of Reference contained in the Letters Patent establishing the Commission, dated 18 August 2022.
2. This Practice Guideline sets out general guidance about the procedures the Commission will follow relating to its conduct. Further practice guidelines may be published in due course.
3. Where the Commission thinks it appropriate, this Practice Guideline and any future practice guidelines may at any time be varied, changed or replaced.

Method of communication with the Commission

4. Any person wishing to provide the Commission with information relevant to the Commission's Terms of Reference should follow the procedure set out in paragraph 8, below .
5. Unless otherwise specified, all contact with the Commission regarding this Practice Guideline should be made by email to RRC.Solicitor@royalcommission.gov.au. If you do not have access to email, please call 1800 317 022 for assistance.
6. The Commission will assume that all communications from the Commission to a person who has provided information to or contacted the Commission may be directed to the email address or postal address from which that person's communication to the Commission was received, unless that person has specified another email address or postal address as their contact.

Providing information to the Commission

7. The Commission invites submissions from all persons[1] with information or documents relevant to any of the matters contained in the Terms of Reference.
8. Any person who wishes to provide the Commission with information relevant to the Commission's Terms of Reference should contact the Commission through the online submission page, which can be accessed via the Commission's website. If you require assistance to provide information to the Commission or if you are unable to use the online form, please email RRC.enquiries@royalcommission.gov.au to make alternative arrangements. If you are unable to communicate by email, please phone the Commission on 1800 317 022.

Submissions made to other inquiries

9. Any person who has, previously provided a submission, information, or a statement to another royal commission or inquiry, or appeared before another royal commission or inquiry, and would like the Commission to have that submission, information, or statement(s), may:
   1. if they have a copy of the submission, information or statement(s), provide that copy to the Commission; or
   2. send an email to RRC.enquiries@royalcommission.gov.au to enquire about how they can authorise the Commission to ask the custodian of the records of that Commission, or other inquiry, for that material.[2]

[1] The term 'person' or 'persons' as it appears in this Guideline includes a body politic or corporate as well as an individual.

[2] In certain cases, there may be restrictions on the use of that material for a secondary purpose – see for example s 16 Parliamentary Privileges Act 1987 (Cth).

Initial public hearing

10. The Commission will hold an initial public hearing at 10am on 27 September 2022 in Brisbane. The hearing will be held at the Pullman Hotel, King George Square, Brisbane.
11. As the Commission determines its program of public hearings, details will be published on its website and in the media. Details of upcoming public hearings will include the scope of the hearings.
12. Applications for leave to appear will be heard or determined by the Commission progressively and as required. Any person wishing to make application for leave to appear should refer to the Commission's Practice Guideline - Leave to Appear and Witnesses.

Production of documents

13. The following relates to the production of documents to the Commission, whether in answer to a Summons, a Notice to Produce or otherwise. A person's obligations in relation to the production of documents in response to an exercise of the Commission's powers under the Act are governed by the Act, other legislation and the general law, and nothing in this Practice Guideline modifies those obligations.
14. The Commission will require that documents be produced electronically, unless a Summons or Notice to Produce specifies that paper documents ("hard copy") are required to be produced. Any person seeking to produce documents in hard copy should communicate in advance with the Commission.
15. The Commission will publish a Document Management Protocol. Persons producing large numbers of electronic documents should refer to the Commission's Document Management Protocol. Party Codes will be provided on the issue of any notice for the production of documents. If the Party Code has not been provided, persons producing documents in accordance with the Document Management Protocol should contact the Commission prior to production to confirm the Party Codes available for use.
16. In circumstances where a person is producing only a small number of electronic documents and does not propose to use a document management database, all electronic documents should be produced electronically in their original format. That is, in the file format in which they exist on the system or systems of the person producing the documents. For example, Microsoft Outlook emails are to be produced as .msg files and Microsoft Word documents are to be produced as .doc or .docx files.
17. Where an electronic copy does not already exist, hard copy should be scanned and rendered directly to Portable Document Format ("PDF") that is machine-readable and word-searchable.
18. Persons producing electronic documents must ensure they produce all parts of the document. For example, where the electronic file is an email chain, all parts of that chain should be produced, and where the electronic file is an email with an attachment, both the email and its attachment should be produced.
19. Persons required to produce electronic documents should not convert the original electronic documents to hard copy for the purposes of production.
20. Persons required to produce hard copy should produce a copy of the original hard copy documents.

Confidentiality

21. Where a person wishes to claim confidentiality in respect of any information or documents provided to the Commission, and wishes to apply for a direction to be made pursuant to section 6D(3) of the Act, the following procedure applies.
22. The person should clearly denote the pages, or the part of the page, containing information or documents over which confidentiality is claimed in the following way as applicable:
    1. Where a person is producing documents pursuant to the Document Management Protocol, they should follow the procedures in the Document Management Protocol for the designation of confidential information.
    2. In all other cases:
       1. where confidentiality is claimed over an entire document, the document should be marked clearly with the word 'Confidential' on the first page of the document and all following pages;
       2. where confidentiality is claimed over particular pages in a document, those pages should be marked clearly with the word 'Confidential'; and
       3. where confidentiality is claimed over part of a page or particular words or phrases in a document, the relevant parts of the page or words or phrases in the document should be highlighted in light blue highlight, and any page containing confidential information should be marked clearly with the words 'Contains confidential information'.
23. The person should provide an accompanying note stating with particularity:
    1. the basis for the claim of confidentiality and the direction sought; and
    2. to whom confidentiality is said to be owed.
24. The Commissioner will:
    1. maintain confidentiality over the subject matter of the application pending the determination of the application;
    2. decide the application on the papers or notify the person or their representative if a hearing is required prior to such a decision being made; and
    3. notify the person or their representative in writing of the Commissioner's decision.

Non-Publication Directions

25. The Commission has powers under the Royal Commissions Act 1902 (Cth) to direct that any evidence given before it not be published. The Act provides that the Commission can direct that any evidence given before it, the contents of any document produced or information which might enable a person who has given evidence before the Commission to be identified, not be published except as specified.
26. The Commission will ensure that confidentiality is maintained where the Commission considers that it is necessary. Any person who feels a particular concern in this area is encouraged to contact the Office of the Commission.
27. Relevantly, sections 6L and 6M of the Act provide that it is an indictable offence to prevent a person from attending as a witness or from producing information or a statement or otherwise use, cause or inflict any violence, punishment, damage, loss, or disadvantage to any person for or on account of that person having appeared before, or provided evidence, documents or information to, the Commission.
28. Any person granted confidential electronic access to documents or otherwise given access to documents which are proposed to be referred to at a public hearing should notify the Office of the Commission of any application for a non-publication direction in relation to any document or part of a document. The application should clearly identify the material sought not to be published and reasons why it is suggested that the material should not be published. The Commissioner will determine whether or not to hear oral submissions in support of such written applications.
29. Any person making written application for non-publication directions will be advised of the decision once their application has been determined by the Commissioner.

Publication and Access to Evidence

30. In respect of all evidence, oral and documentary, the following will apply unless varied either generally or in respect of particular evidence:
    1. transcripts of evidence in public hearings will be uploaded to the Commission's website as soon as they are available;
    2. the evidence of any witness before the Commission will be published by the Commission unless a direction is made prohibiting or restricting the publication of particular evidence;
    3. any person (or the legal representative of that person) having leave to appear before the Commission will have access to any book, document or writing referred to in evidence (limited to that evidence that is directly relevant to the issues in relation to which they have been given leave to appear) for the purpose only of appearance before the Commission and subject to any other direction made by the Commissioner;
    4. for the purpose of, and to the extent necessary for the public reporting of the proceedings of the Commission, any representative of a newspaper, magazine, radio station, online publication or television channel may inspect and take extracts from any book, document or writing referred to in evidence after it has been notified as available for inspection by counsel assisting, subject to the condition that:
       1. it not be used or permitted to be used for any purpose other than the public reporting of the proceedings of the Commission; and
       2. any part of the contents the subject of a direction prohibiting its publication must not be published. If it is believed that any such direction may obstruct proper reporting of any matter of significance, application may be made to vary or lift the non-publication direction.
31. Any person appearing before the Commission may apply for a direction that all or part of their evidence not be published.
32. Any application for access should be made in writing, in the first instance, to the Office of the Commission at RRC.enquiries@royalcommission.gov.au.

Telephone or Video Proceedings

33. At the discretion of the Commissioner, part of any hearing may be conducted either by telephone, video link or other mechanism as approved by the Commissioner. Any person appearing before the Commission may apply to participate by telephone, video link or other mechanism.
34. Where evidence is to be given either by telephone, video link or other approved mechanism, the Office of the Commission will make the necessary arrangements and provide the details of the proceedings, the witness or witnesses, location, telephone numbers and the date, time and estimated duration to the parties. Where the Commissioner considers it appropriate, details will be published on the Commission's website.

Interpreters

35. Interpreters will be provided by the Commission as needed. Witnesses and parties must ensure that the Office of the Commission is advised of the need for an interpreter as soon as reasonably practicable, and, in any event, in sufficient time for arrangements to be made. Interpreters will be accredited at the first professional level, Interpreter, with the National Authority for Accreditation of Translators and Interpreters ("NAATI"). Only in languages where no professional level interpreter is accredited will a Paraprofessional Interpreter be utilised.

General

36. Transcripts of each public hearing will be uploaded to the Commission's website as soon as possible after they become available, subject to any order of the Commission to the contrary.
37. Media Guidelines for public hearings have been published on the Commission's website. Members of the media should refer to those Guidelines for further information on publication and access to evidence.
38. Nothing in this Practice Guideline should be taken as limiting the Commission's powers, whether at the request of any person or on the Commission's own initiative, to treat any material or information as confidential and to take any steps in respect of the preservation of such confidentiality.