{"id":119,"date":"2018-02-21T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-21T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hub.findingsimple.com\/au\/submitting-evidence-royal-commission-banking-financial-services\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T13:05:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T02:05:53","slug":"submitting-evidence-royal-commission-banking-financial-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insight.thomsonreuters.com.au\/legal\/posts\/submitting-evidence-royal-commission-banking-financial-services","title":{"rendered":"Submitting Evidence to the Royal Commission: Volunteer at Your Peril!"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_6845\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6845\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/insight.thomsonreuters.com.au\/legal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/06\/tom-middleton_photo-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6845\" src=\"https:\/\/insight.thomsonreuters.com.au\/legal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2019\/06\/tom-middleton_photo-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Dr Tom Middleton, Associate Professor in the School of Law, James Cook University, Townsville and author of Thomson Reuters\u2019 ASIC Corporate Investigations and Hearings.\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6845\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dr Tom Middleton, Associate Professor in the School of Law, James Cook University, Townsville and author of Thomson Reuters\u2019 <em>ASIC Corporate Investigations and Hearings<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"intro-paragraph\">Volunteering is generally a laudable exercise to be encouraged. But when it comes to the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry (the Royal Commission), volunteering could be risky.<\/p>\n<p>In part two of the <a href=\"http:\/\/insight.thomsonreuters.com.au\/tag\/royal-commission\">Royal Commission article series<\/a>, Virginia Ginnane interviews Thomson Reuters author Dr Tom Middleton about the thorny path ahead for clients who will give evidence to the Royal Commission.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><strong>Royal Commission form guide<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Members of the public can voluntarily upload their submissions to the <a href=\"https:\/\/financialservices.royalcommission.gov.au\/Public-submissions\/Pages\/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Royal Commission website<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/financialservices.royalcommission.gov.au\/hearings-and-transcripts\/Pages\/Practice-guidelines.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Three Practice Guidelines<\/a> have been issued by the Royal Commission regarding \u201cProcedures establishing the conduct of the Royal Commission\u201d, \u201cProcedures for leave to appear and witnesses\u201d and \u201cProcedure for making a claim of legal professional privilege\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cDocument Management Protocol for the production of electronic documents\u201d, outlining the technical requirements for uploading submissions is available <a href=\"https:\/\/financialservices.royalcommission.gov.au\/hearings-and-transcripts\/Documents\/Document-Management-Protocol.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a><\/li>\n<li>And it\u2019s all governed by the <em>Royal Commissions Act 1902<\/em> (Cth).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><strong>The Royal Commission: Go forth and submit<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The focus of the Royal Commission is to get to the truth about whether there have been breaches of the financial services laws and other relevant regulatory laws. Voluntary submissions enable the Royal Commission to gather evidence quickly in contrast to the lengthier process of compelling witnesses to appear and produce documents. Such evidence may trigger further lines of inquiry by the Royal Commission and \/or the regulators.<\/p>\n<p>There can be no deliberations without evidence to consider, no show without Punch, so the Royal Commission\u2019s current push is to gather voluntary submissions from individuals or entities across all the banking, superannuation and financial services sectors. Quickly and cost-effectively.<\/p>\n<p>So far the Royal Commission has received almost 400 voluntary public submissions, and will continue to accept them over the coming months. No deadline has yet been set.<\/p>\n<p>The Commissioner, the Honourable Kenneth Madison Hayne AC QC, has wasted no time criticising the banks, and other financial institutions in the superannuation and financial services sectors, for their delay in meeting the two-month deadline set for them to make their submissions.<\/p>\n<p>By taking his gloves off in his treatment of these institutions, the Commissioner appears to be implicitly reassuring aggrieved persons to keep those voluntary submissions coming.<\/p>\n<p>And he\u2019s taken the lock off the confidential cabinet, to ensure that employees can spill the beans on their employers in the financial sector without being sacked for shattering any confidentiality agreements. In doing so, the Commissioner has applied s 6N of the <em>Royal Commissions Act 1902<\/em> (Cth) (the Act) &nbsp;which &nbsp;provides that any employer who dismisses any employees from their employment, or prejudices them in their employment, for giving evidence (pursuant to a summons) to the Royal Commission, commits an indictable offence.<\/p>\n<p>So the scene is set, the tone is one of urgency and the floodgates are officially open.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><strong>Volunteering: It can be fraught with risk<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>For practitioners whose clients are members of these financial institutions or individuals planning to make voluntary submissions, there are a number of issues to be considered.<br \/>\nMembers of the public can voluntarily upload their submissions to the <a href=\"https:\/\/financialservices.royalcommission.gov.au\/Public-submissions\/Pages\/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Royal Commission website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But before doing so, be warned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no evidential immunity for a voluntary informant,\u201d explains Dr Tom Middleton, author of Thomson Reuters\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/legal.thomsonreuters.com.au\/asic-corporate-investigations-and-hearings-online\/productdetail\/51949\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>ASIC Corporate Investigations and Hearings<\/em><\/a> and Associate Professor in the School of Law, James Cook University.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat information that your client has submitted voluntarily to the Royal Commission can be used against them in future civil, civil penalty and\/or criminal proceedings. They won\u2019t be given evidential immunity under the Act in those proceedings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt can be dangerous to volunteer information, particularly if in hindsight your client realises it may have been self-incriminating. It could also trigger a further line of inquiry that may be injurious to your client.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr Middleton further explains that if the information that your client submits is confidential or protected by legal professional privilege, by submitting it voluntarily, your client may impliedly waive that confidentiality or privilege.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe voluntary disclosure of confidential or privileged information to the Royal Commission may mean that there\u2019s an implied waiver of confidentiality or legal professional privilege in relation to that information in subsequent litigation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf your client volunteered information that was considered confidential by another person, that person could sue your client for breach of confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By contrast, there are protections afforded under the Act to those who are compelled to provide information to the Royal Commission, including protections for employees and \u201cevidential immunity\u201d as outlined below.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><strong>Evidence from summoned witnesses attracts evidential immunity<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>As the Royal Commission sifts through the information submitted voluntarily, key \u201cpersons of interest\u201d may begin to emerge and those persons may be summoned to appear before, and give evidence to, the Royal Commission.<\/p>\n<p>Section 3 of the Act provides that there\u2019s a penalty of $1,000 or six months in prison for failure to comply with the summons, unless a reasonable excuse can be shown.<\/p>\n<p>This \u201creasonable excuse\u201d can be due to practical or physical reasons, such as ill health or the fact that too many documents are required to be produced in too short a time. It can also be due to a claim that the information is subject to legal professional privilege, explains Dr Middleton. Section 6AA of the Act outlines the circumstances in which legal professional privilege can be claimed as a \u201creasonable excuse\u201d for non-compliance.<\/p>\n<p>But there\u2019s an upside to being summoned. In contrast to the lack of evidential immunity for voluntary informants, s 6DD of the Act provides that where a witness is compelled by a summons to give evidence to the Royal Commission, that evidence isn\u2019t admissible against a natural person in any civil or criminal proceedings in any court of the Commonwealth, of a State or of a Territory. It\u2019s however, admissible against a corporation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf your clients wait until they\u2019re compelled to give evidence and produce documents by summons, then those clients will get evidential immunity in terms of s 6DD,\u201d says Dr Middleton.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlthough that evidence can be used against other people who your clients have identified and implicated, your clients (who are natural persons, rather than corporations) will be protected (by the Act) from their own direct evidence being used against them in subsequent civil or criminal proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><strong>Evidential immunity not a gold pass<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Section 6DD of the Act must be read carefully. It only gives evidential immunity in relation to the clients\u2019 statements or documents that they were compelled to provide (by summons) to the Royal Commission. There\u2019s nothing to stop secondary evidence being derived from your client\u2019s statement or documents and that secondary or derivative evidence isn\u2019t protected by any evidential immunity and could be admissible in subsequent proceedings as evidence against your client.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvidential immunity under s 6DD doesn\u2019t protect your client from a regulator, such as ASIC (the Australian Securities and Investments Commission), using your client\u2019s evidence as a springboard to gather secondary or derivative evidence &#8211; and using that derivative evidence against your client,\u201d concludes Dr Middleton.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>About Dr Tom Middleton<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Dr Tom Middleton is an Associate Professor in the School of Law, James Cook University, Townsville. He is admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>He earned a Bachelor of Commerce and a PhD from James Cook University, and a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and a Masters Degree in Legal Practice at Queensland University of Technology.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>In 1999, he wrote a two-volume book (looseleaf and online service) entitled <a href=\"https:\/\/legal.thomsonreuters.com.au\/asic-corporate-investigations-and-hearings-online\/productdetail\/51949\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ASIC Corporate Investigations and Hearings<\/a>, published by Thomson Reuters. He currently updates this book five times per year and it has been in continuous publication for the past 18 years. It is the leading publication for legal practitioners in relation to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission\u2019s investigative and enforcement powers.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>He has published numerous refereed articles and a number of these have been cited by the Courts, Academics and Law Reform Commissions in Australia and New Zealand. Those articles have also been utilised by government agencies including the Commonwealth Treasury in the context of proposals for law reform.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>He is a foundation staff member in the School of Law and he currently teaches third and fourth year law subjects in both Townsville and Cairns.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Volunteering is generally a laudable exercise to be encouraged. But when it comes to the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry (the Royal Commission),&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[646,648,625],"tags":[45,463],"insight_job_role":[569,1315,598,604,614,628],"insight_practice_area":[571,582],"class_list":["entry","author-virginiag","post-119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-legal-commentary-and-opinion","category-legislation-and-case-law","category-research-and-know-how","tag-asic","tag-royal-commission","insight_job_role-academic","insight_job_role-barrister","insight_job_role-in-house-lawyer","insight_job_role-knowledge-manager","insight_job_role-partner","insight_job_role-solicitor","insight_practice_area-banking-and-finance-law","insight_practice_area-company-law","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Submitting Evidence to the Royal Commission: Volunteer at Your Peril!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Volunteering is generally a laudable exercise to be encouraged. 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