Submissions Policy

Public submissions

Your submissions are essential to our work. We regularly call for submissions from the public to seek a range of views to inform our work. Any responses to a call for submissions (or responses to IPART questionnaires or quick feedback forms) will generally be treated in accordance with this policy.

If we are considering an issue that matters to you, we want to hear from you. We use your feedback to understand your views about the issues we investigate, and to gather new ideas and insights.

What information do we treat in accordance with this policy?

We treat the following as submissions in accordance with the Submissions Policy:

written submissions lodged via the Have your say page (including information submitted in response to specific questions via a form on IPART’s website)
written submissions lodged via email or post (with a completed cover sheet)
oral submissions
IPART quick feedback forms open to public response
responses and results from IPART questionnaires open to the public
any further information we request in response to a written or oral submission

In addition, if you write to us on an issue relevant to a matter IPART is considering and your correspondence sets out relevant information, reasons or arguments, IPART may treat this correspondence as a submission, and in accordance with this policy. This means, for example, that we may publish your correspondence or refer to it in a publication.

What information is not covered by this policy?

The following are excluded from the scope of this policy:

comments or responses to social media posts on platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook
pricing proposals by regulated businesses
submissions made in response to audit outcomes or proposed enforcement action
information required under our compulsory information gathering powers
responses to targeted industry consultation (for example, on policy documents that affect only regulated entities).

How to make a submission

You can make a submission in writing or, if you need assistance, by phone to one of our staff. You can make a submission via the have your say page for the relevant consultation before the noted due date.

We will also accept submissions, with a completed cover sheet, via email (ipart@ipart.nsw.gov.au) or mail (PO Box K35, Haymarket Post Shop NSW 1240).

If you need assistance to make a submission by phone, please contact us on (02) 9290 8400. We will arrange for a staff member working on the relevant matter to call you to receive your submission. You will need to agree to the staff member making a record of your submission, which will be treated in accordance with this Policy.

To speak to us using an interpreter, please call the National Translating and Interpreting Service on 13 14 50 and ask them to call us on (02) 9290 8400. This service provides immediate phone interpreting. We will pay for this service.

Extensions

Lodging submissions by the deadline allows sufficient time for us to consider the views put forward. We may consider requests for an extension, or submissions received after the due date, at our discretion.

If you are seeking an extension or would like to lodge a submission after the published due date, please provide reasons in support of your request.

Extensions granted to a specific stakeholder will not necessarily be offered to other stakeholders unless the basis for granting an extension applies broadly.

Even where we accept a late submission, we may not be able to consider it as fully as the submissions we receive on time, due to the timeframes that apply to some of our reviews.

What to include in your submission

We often include consultation questions in our papers and reports that we seek feedback on. We encourage you to provide answers to any or all of those questions. We may give more weight to answers supported by reasons. Your feedback need not be confined to the questions. Your submission should tell us your views and the reasons for those views, including any information or evidence to support them. There is additional guidance available on what to address in submissions for some matters, such as local government special rate variations, on our website.

If you include any materials in your submission that may be subject to copyright, it is your responsibility to obtain the appropriate licences and to authorise us to use and publish that material.

We will consider your submission

Public submissions improve our publications, recommendations and decision-making by providing us with a range of perspectives. We will consider the relevant information you provide before we make decisions and show how your submissions have informed our work. We use your submissions, along with other research and analysis, to develop our recommendations and inform our decisions.

Your submission may be used in other contexts

Where we receive information (including confidential submissions) in the course of one matter which is relevant to another matter, we may use that information for the other matter, subject to any legal requirements.

We will usually publish your name and your submission

Unless you request otherwise, we will generally publish your name and your submission on our website. In the case of questionnaire or feedback form responses, we will usually either publish the results or a summary of the responses on our website. This supports our commitment to transparency: if we are going to take information into account in doing our work, we try to make that information as publicly available as possible.

We generally publish submissions together, after the published due date for the relevant consultation has passed. We publish submissions that were received on time or accepted after the due date. We may also post or quote parts of your submission on our social media accounts, in media releases or in our reports.

However, we will protect your privacy by blacking out certain personal information from submissions, such as your home address and signature. We treat all personal information in submissions in accordance with the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 and IPART’s Privacy Statement.

In general, we do not publish confidential submissions or any parts of submissions which are confidential.

We may choose not to publish submissions in some circumstances

We reserve the right not to publish submissions in whole or part, including where we consider that:

A submission is excessively lengthy, offensive, potentially defamatory, a duplicate or standard form submission, or clearly out of scope for the particular consultation
It replicates a newspaper article (or other copyright material)
Our commitment to transparency is better served by making the information we received available and accessible in some other way - for example, if we receive a large number of submissions, we may publish a summary that extracts the themes from the submissions.

Confidential information in submission

If you believe your submission contains information that you consider should not be made public, please let us know (this is called making a claim for confidentiality).
In general, we do not publish confidential submissions or any parts of submissions which are confidential. We use the confidential material to inform our inquiries and reviews, but we generally do not refer to confidential submissions or identify confidential information in our publications.
If you make a confidential submission, we may give your submission less or minimal weight (for example, in some cases, where we have not been able to test the information in your submission).

Claims for confidentiality

You may ask us not to publish parts, or all, of your submission because it contains sensitive information. This is called making a claim for confidentiality. We may ask you to provide reasons for claiming confidentiality. You may claim confidentiality over information that is genuinely of a commercially sensitive or confidential nature and is not otherwise publicly available.

How to make a claim for confidentiality

Where possible, we prefer to publish as much information as practicable. If only part of your submission contains confidential information, we would like to publish the other information.

Please provide two copies of your submission:

one complete copy which contains the confidential information for our internal use; and
one copy with the confidential information blacked out or redacted (while preserving page numbers and headings) so that it is suitable for publication. Alternatively, you can provide a copy with the confidential information highlighted and we can black out that information before we publish it.

If you have any questions about claiming confidentiality, you may contact us to discuss your proposed submission.

In certain circumstances, IPART may be required to disclose confidential submissions but will try to notify and consult you about the proposed disclosure. IPART determines requests for access to confidential submissions in accordance with the Government Information Public Access Act 2009, the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal Act 1992 (see, for instance, section 22A) and any other applicable legislation.

Making a submission with your name suppressed

If you do not want your name (or your organisation’s name) published, you may ask for it to be suppressed. We will then publish your submission, noting that the name of the submitter has been suppressed. You do not need to make a confidentiality claim for this.

If you decide not to tell us your name, we may publish and consider your submission as an anonymous submission. It is useful, however, to include your contact details on the submission, so we can discuss it with you. If we need to discuss your submission and are unable to contact you, we may give your submission less weight.

Your options when making a submission

	As an individual	As an organisation
Suppressing name	Publish name OR Do not publish name	Publish name and organisation’s name Do not publish my name but publish my organisation’s name OR Do not publish my name or my organisation’s name
Confidentiality	Not confidential – the submission can be published on IPART’s website OR Confidential – all or part of your submission should be treated as confidential and not published by IPART. [Note confidential parts must be indicated]

Who will see your submission?

Submissions (including confidential submissions) may be viewed by the Tribunal members, staff and consultants (for example, when we obtain an opinion or analysis by an internal or external economic, legal or industry adviser). All of these people are required not to disclose confidential information that they receive. We may also be required to provide submissions to others when legally required to do so (such as under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 or under an order of Parliament).

When exercising some functions, IPART may be required to provide submissions, or a summary of submissions, to the relevant Minister. In those circumstances, we will draw such requirements to your attention (for example, it would be stated on the webpage for the relevant review that all submissions, including confidential submissions, will be provided to the relevant Minister).

Once non-confidential submissions are published on our website, they are also accessible to the general public.