Royal Commissions – A Guide. Part 3 – Post-Hearing

09 Oct Royal Commissions – A Guide. Part 3 – Post-Hearing

In my first two articles, we talked about:

• preparing your business to benefit from a Royal Commission in your industry; and
• appearing at a Royal Commission.

Today, we will talk about what happens after a Royal Commission hearing.

The first thing you will probably do is take a big sigh of relief and sleep better than you did during the hearing (assuming you slept at all).

After the hearing, Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission (the person who asked you all those questions) will put together a written submission. They send this to your lawyer and you will have a short period of time (sometimes just a few days) to provide a response before the documents go to the Royal Commissioner.

In the Banking Royal Commission, Counsel Assisting’s submissions said things like ‘it is open to the Commissioner to find that [details of conduct] was in breach of [details of legislation].’ They might look like this.

Again, you can find more examples on the internet.

This will be sent to your lawyers and you will probably want your lawyers to help you write your response.

The Royal Commission may also have requested that you present written submissions on some questions. Again, you probably want to work with your lawyers to write these.

Once you have done this, it is time to take stock. What changes do you need to make to improve your business? Unravelling Red Tape can help you:

• do a stocktake on your policies and procedures, to make sure they are fit-for-purpose – comply with legislation, easy to read and implement, etc , like I did here; and
• design business improvement/innovation processes to help identify issues in your business early and empower your employees to make your business better, like I did here.

Next time, we will talk about government responses to a Royal Commission and how this impacts your business.

Elaine Abery worked in the Australian Federal Government for over a decade. Her roles included designing legislation and the Secretariat to the Board of Taxation. She spent a decade on the other side of the negotiating table, working with peak industry groups, KPMG and various charities. She has been published in international journals and books. Her work has received prestigious international awards.