AUSTRALIA
Lexology
Corrs Chambers Westgarth
Jared Heath
Australia July 19 2017
Over the last five years, a number of high-profile Royal Commissions have inquired into a range of important issues, including child sexual abuse, home insulation, trade unions, family violence, nuclear fuel and child detention. What lessons can be drawn from the history and practice of Royal Commissions and other inquiries in Australia?
Royal Commissions have served an important role of informing successive governments, both in an inquisitorial and policy context. They are an option for responding to a crisis and a call for action, as well as a mechanism for developing public policy.
Over the past six months, Corrs has conducted extensive research into the history of Royal Commissions and inquiries at a Commonwealth level, as well as in New South Wales and Victoria (including New South Wales special commissions of inquiry and Victorian boards of inquiry). In this article, we set out some of the major findings from our research, including what we see as the key trends and lessons that can be learnt.
5 key trends
Below are five of the most interesting trends our research identified:
1. Despite the recent spate of Royal Commissions, there has actually been a decline in the number of them over time.
At the Commonwealth level for example, the number of Royal Commissions peaked at 54 between 1910-1929, but over the last decade, there have been only four.
2. Inquisitorial inquiries are now more common than policy inquiries.
At the Commonwealth level, 60% of all Royal Commissions have been policy inquiries, but over the last 4 decades 60% have been inquisitorial inquiries.
Both trends one and two could be explained by the development and growth of the public service, including the proliferation of specific sources of policy advice (e.g. the Commonwealth Productivity Commission) and standing investigative and regulatory bodies (e.g. the Independent Commission Against Corruption (NSW) and the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (Victoria)). However, the family violence and nuclear fuel cycle inquiries could also suggest a return to policy inquiries where the existing political or bureaucratic systems are unable to satisfactorily address complex or wicked problems.
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