Submissions
Promoting good governance by the rule of law.
Making Submissions
The Rule of Law Education Centre makes submissions to Parliamentary Committees and Reviews to foster the rule of law in Australia and to champion good laws and their administration that protect and advance individual Australians and their freedoms.
Additional submissions are made by our sister organisation, the Rule of Law Institute of Australia which can be found by on their website https://ruleoflawaustralia.com.au/submissions/
At the Rule of Law Education Centre, we believe that democracy and the key principles that underline our system of government such as equality, fairness and justice must be deliberately and intentionally taught to every generation of Australians. Intentionality ensures each generation has sufficient knowledge, understanding, skills and values required to maintain a constitutional, liberal democracy.
Our Rule of Law Wheel states ‘the rule of law must be supported by informed and active citizens.’ As a result our submissions regarding the curriculum consider, from a rule of law perspective, whether Australian students are being equipped with adequate knowledge so can they be active, informed, responsible and engaged citizens and undertake their civic duties to ensure the stability of the Australian community going forward.
Recent Submissions
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2024: NSW Legal Studies Curriculum
On 28 October 2024, a draft Legal Studies syllabus was released. An Advisory Group was established to comment on the NSW Legal Studies Draft Syllabus from a rule of law perspective.
Our submission was made on 20 December 2024. Disappointingly, on 11 December 2025 the final NSW Legal Studies Curriculum was released with little incorporation of our recommendations.
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2024: NSW Commerce Curriculum
On 08 April 2024, the Rule of Law Education Centre made a Submission on the NSW Commerce Draft 7-10 Syllabus with 3 recommendations:
1. Australia’s political system in the Core unit ‘The Legal and Political Environment’ be further enhanced
2. Missing element: The High Court and its role in interpreting the Constitution
3. More Teacher training particularly Initial Teacher Education
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2024: NSW History Curriculum
The Rule of Law Education made submissions on the first two drafts of the NSW History Syllabus. In particular, we suggested additional compulsory/core content, building knowledge over time, add civics content to outcomes and enhance content in regards to Laws and the courts. The submission also highlighted that for the period 1788-1901 in Australia, students should look at multiple perspectives of Colonisation and not merely from an Aboriginal person’s experience.
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2024: Electoral Matters Inquiry
The key elements of a formalised civics and citizenship education have been identified and agreed upon by the States and Territories, there has been no method of review or audit of each State or Territory’s curriculums to make sure they contain the minimum civics and citizenship content that was agreed upon in the Statement of Learning. This lack of accountability has meant that students' opportunities for a formalised civics education vary significantly between different States and Territories based upon the individual state curriculum and the education authorities responsible for each state’s curriculum.
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2022: The State of Civics and Citizenship in NSW in 2022
This report compares the explicit civics and citizenship education within the NSW Curriculum with version 8.4 of the Australian Curriculum (currently taught in schools) to highlight the significant gap in Civics and Citizenship Education in NSW.
With current media attention focused on the revisions to the Australian Curriculum, there is no consideration of the curriculum being taught in NSW, the most populous state in Australia, and whether the ‘adopt and adapt’ approach within the NSW Curriculum provides sufficient civics and citizenship education.
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2021: National HASS Curriculum
The Australian education system will only deliver an effective, well-educated citizenry through acknowledging and celebrating significant events and individuals throughout our history, up to the present day. Students must be encouraged to develop qualities in agency and action. Only through learning from the achievements and mistakes of the past, can we help to build a safe and cohesive society into the future, for all Australian.