Tips for making your submission

Your submission must be relevant to the terms of reference for the inquiry. They are:
- The social and legal impact of lowering of the age of consent for homosexual males to the same age which applies to heterosexual males and females and lesbians, and in particular, the lowering of the age of consent for homosexual males as proposed in the Crimes Amendment (sexual Offences) Bill introduced into the Legislative Council on 29 August, 2002 and

Your submissions can include facts, opinions, arguments and recommendations for action. The point is to show how you, your organisation or your community feels about the issue. See attached for points to consider for an equal age of consent and background to the bill.
There is no set format for a written submission. You can write a brief letter (see attached template) or a substantial research paper. You can attach appendices and other supporting documents.
Once you make a submission to a committee inquiry and a report is tabled your submission may become available to the public. If you want all or part of your submission to be kept confidential, state it clearly on your submission.
The presentation of submissions and evidence are protected by parliamentary privilege, which means that your submission and evidence can be made freely and honestly without threat of legal action for defamation. Your submission and evidence become property of the committee, so you can't publish or disclose it without the committee's authorisation. Parliamentary privilege only extends to submissions and evidence that is published by the committee.

Submissions should be sent to:

The Director
Standing Committee on Social Issues
Parliament House
Macquarie Street Sydney NSW 2000

For further information about the Social Issues committee and the inquiry please visit the NSW Parliament website.