On 29 July 2019 the Senate referred an inquiry into nationhood, national identity and democracy to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee for inquiry and report by the last sitting day of May 2020. On 23 March 2020 the committee's reporting date was extended to 9 September 2020. On 31 August 2020 the committee's reporting date was extended to 8 December 2020. On 8 December 2020 the committee's reporting date was extended to 16 February 2021.

The deadline for submissions to the inquiry was 30 September 2019.

Further detail about the scope of the inquiry is provided in the terms of reference.

The committee has published a discussion paper to guide submitters. The paper is not intended to be prescriptive. Your submission may go beyond the issues raised in the discussion paper if it is relevant to the terms of reference.

Please be aware that the committee may choose not to accept or not to publish a submission that contains a statement that is deliberately inflammatory, incites hatred or violence, or is likely to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate.

You should also be aware that if a submission reflects adversely on another party (for example, makes allegations of a serious nature such as incompetence, negligence, corruption or criminal conduct), the committee is generally required to provide that party access to the submission and an opportunity to respond. It is also open to the committee to decline to accept or decline to publish a submission that contains adverse reflections.