Legislative & regulatory drafting · 04
Consultation, gazetting and ministerial reporting support
Design of the consultation process so that it is procedurally defensible; the notice and comment period; the comment matrix and the reasoned response to material comment; the submission to the…
Design of the consultation process so that it is procedurally defensible; the notice and comment period; the comment matrix and the reasoned response to material comment; the submission to the responsible authority; and the gazetting and commencement mechanics.
Organs of state and statutory bodies running a public process for the first time, or recovering from one that was challenged.
Consultation that does not demonstrably consider the comment received is procedurally vulnerable under PAJA. The comment matrix — every material comment, the response, and the reason — is the document that answers that challenge, and it has to be built during the process rather than reconstructed afterwards.
The law it sits under
The framework this work answers to.
Where a rule materially and adversely affects the rights of the public, section 4 of PAJA requires a procedure that is fair — in practice, notice, a genuine opportunity to comment, and evidence that the comments were considered. Consultation that is run as a formality is the most reviewable thing a regulator does, because the record shows it. Where the empowering Act prescribes its own consultation route, that route governs.
How the engagement runs
What you are committing to.
The consultation is designed before the notice is published: who must be consulted, how long they get, what they are being asked, and how comment will be recorded. The deliverables are the notice, the comment matrix — every material comment, the response, and the reason — and the reasoned submission to the Minister or the Council. The comment matrix is the document that makes the process defensible, and it has to be built as the comments arrive rather than reconstructed afterwards.
Publishing for comment and then gazetting an instrument that differs materially from what was published restarts the exercise. Where the change is substantial, it has to go back out — and knowing where that line falls is most of the value.
Related pages, tools and documents
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