How to host a committee inquiry

These resources are designed to guide teachers through the process of running a parliamentary committee inquiry with your class, helping students to understand the work of parliamentary committees and the role they play in law reform.

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‘How to host a committee inquiry’ is a step-by-step guide that looks at each phase of the inquiry process, providing a brief summary of each and suggested activities for your class. The reflection and evaluation questions at the end ask students to explore the purpose of committee inquiries, to develop an understanding of their importance in the process of making and reforming the law.

Written for VCE Legal Studies, Unit 4 Area of Study 2, this guide can also be used at other levels, either in conjunction with one of the accompanying case studies that looks specifically at a recent law reform, or with an inquiry topic of your own choosing.

There is currently one case study available, which looks at the inquiry into a spent convictions scheme, but there will be more to follow soon.

  • The How to host a committee inquiry resource, especially when used in conjunction with one of the law reform case studies, helps to address the key outcomes of Unit 4: Area of Study 2, The people, the parliament and the courts from the VCE Legal Studies study design.

    The resource can also be used to explore other VCE Legal Studies Areas of Study such as Unit 1: Area of Study 1, Legal Foundations, Outcome 1, and Unit 4: Area of Study 1, The people and the Australian Constitution.

    More broadly, the resource can be used across the Victorian Curriculum: Civics and Citizenship Curriculum to explore the features and processes of law-making, and evaluating ways people can participate in the law-making process. It can also be used as a research and presentation approach to investigating issues and topics across the curriculum, including the English, Science and Humanities curriculums.

    The specific curriculum connections are discussed in more detail within the resource.

  • This case study explores the inquiry into a legislated spent convictions scheme conducted by the Legislative Council Legal and Social Issues Committee in 2019. It has been produced to accompany our ‘How to host a committee inquiry’ guide, which provides a framework for running an inquiry process with your class.

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