The Royal Commission wants documents or information that you have - what do you do?

Key Points:

Government agencies, organisations and individuals who may have information or documents relevant to the work of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse can all be required to produce them.

The recently established Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse may be some way off from holding public hearings as it busily sets itself up for what will no doubt be a complex and mammoth inquiry.

Critical to the work of the Commission will be its terms of reference as set out in the Letters Patent issued by the Governor-General, and the wide-ranging and often coercive evidence gathering powers it has under the Royal Commissions Act 1902 (the Royal Commissions Amendment Bill 2013 currently before Parliament will establish some procedural aspects but won't affect the Commission's information-gathering powers).