Please be advised that the committee has sought advice from the Clerk of the Senate on the matter of submissions containing allegations of criminal conduct. This advice can be found here.

Terms of Reference:
That the following matters be referred to the Community Affairs References Committee for inquiry and report by 30 June 2011:
(a) the role, if any, of the Commonwealth Government, its policies and practices in
contributing to forced adoptions; and
(b) the potential role of the Commonwealth in developing a national framework to assist
states and territories to address the consequences for the mothers, their families and
children who were subject to forced adoption policies.

The closing date for submissions was 31 October 2011. The reporting date was originally  30 June 2011. On 12 May 2011,the Senate granted an extension of time for reporting until 21 November 2011. Due to the large volume of evidence and the complexity of issues, the committee has sought and received a further  extension of time to report, to 29  February 2012. The committee thanks everyone who has provided evidence to date. If you have not previously submitted, but would like to, the committee will welcome evidence from new submitters.

The Committee is seeking written submissions from interested individuals and organisations preferably in electronic form submitted online or sent by email to community.affairs.sen@aph.gov.au as an attached Adobe PDF or MS Word format document. The email must include full postal address and contact details.

Alternatively, written submissions may be sent to:

Committee Secretary
Senate Standing Committees on Community Affairs
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia

Notes to help you prepare your submission are available from the website at https://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/wit_sub/index.htm. Alternatively, the Committee Secretariat will be able to help you with your inquiries and can be contacted on telephone +61 2 6277 3515 or facsimile +61 2 6277 5829 or by email to community.affairs.sen@aph.gov.au.

Inquiries from hearing and speech impaired people should be directed to Parliament House TTY number 02 6277 7799. Adobe also provides tools at http://access.adobe.com/ for the blind and visually impaired to access PDF documents. If you require any special arrangements to enable you to participate in the Committee's inquiry, please contact the Committee Secretariat.

Once the Committee accepts your submission, it becomes a confidential Committee document and is protected by Parliamentary Privilege. You must not release your submission without the Committee's permission. If you do, it will not be protected by Parliamentary Privilege. At some stage during the inquiry, the Committee normally makes submissions public and places them on its website. Please indicate if you want your submission to be kept confidential.