Australian Joint Parliamentary Hearings Moves To Second Stage
CANBERRA, Aus. (Blue MauMau) - The Australian Joint Standing Committee for Corporations and Financial Services have begun posting the submissions received into their Inquiry into the Franchising Code of Conduct on their website. 
The committee have posted 140 submissions on their website, with more to come. Unfortunately most of those posted are confidential and so are not accessible. Those that can be viewed make interesting reading.
The first stage of their Inquiry was the call for written submissions, which closed on the 12 September.
Photo/Parliament of Australia
The written submissions can be downloaded.
The next stage of the Inquiry involves the Committee conducting Public Hearings around Australia during October. The dates and locations are:
- 9 Oct - Sydney
- 10 Oct - Brisbane
- 17 Oct - Canberra
- 24 Oct - Melbourne
- 30 Oct - Perth
These hearings are open to the public so it is expected that they will get good media coverage as well.
Three former franchisees of the Bakers Delight franchise (COBS in Canada) have been invited to speak at these Public hearings, including myself. I have been invited to address the Committee in Canberra on the 17 October.
Ms Narelle Walter and Mr David Bombarra are both scheduled to provide their evidence in Perth on 30 October.
In these public hearings, witnesses are protected by Parliamentary Privilege which means that they have immunity from civil or ciminal action and cannot be sued or prosecuted for anything they say or do in the course of the proceedings. Parliamentary Privilege ensures that a witness can speak without fear of retribution from the franchisor.
This will make the public hearings a very important part of the Inquiry. The Committee is due to hand down their final report on 01 December 2008.
- Content topic:
- Enter Your Own Tag:
