Public hearings

The Disability Royal Commission held a series of public hearings around the country to gather evidence about violence, neglect, abuse and exploitation of people with disability.

Public hearings are formal proceedings in which witnesses gave evidence, under oath or affirmation, about events and issues that were relevant to the Disability Royal Commission’s terms of reference.

All public hearings were recorded and streamed live on the Royal Commission website. Every public hearing had live captioning and Auslan-English interpreters.

Featured hearings pages

Commissioner Mason and the Chair sitting at bench at a public hearing

Our public hearings

Find out more about our public hearings, read related documents or watch a hearings video recording.

More information about how public hearings worked

For more information about how public hearings worked, access our:

Leave to Appear at a public hearing

Prior to each hearing, the Royal Commission invited people and organisations who may have a direct and substantial interest in a particular hearing to make an application for leave to appear. Information about leave to appear can be found in the Royal Commission’s Practice Guideline about Leave to Appear.

Leave to appear applications were typically made by people or organisations who were the subject of evidence before the Royal Commission. This included individuals as well as service providers and government agencies.

Everyone who made an application for leave to appear was notified of the outcome of their application.