An important part of the work of back bench Members of Parliament (those not holding senior offices such as a Minister) is their membership of parliamentary committees. Parliament appoints committees made up of Members to inquire into and report back on certain matters. These might be a proposed new law; an important or controversial social or legal problem; a proposed government activity; the budgets and expenditures of government departments. Some committees also deal with ongoing matters such as overseeing the work of a particular body (e.g. ICAC, the Independent Commission Against Corruption) or constantly reviewing such matters as road safety or government regulations.

The committees are given terms of reference stating the issues to be addressed. The committee first considers these issues, then usually calls for submissions, inviting interested people and organisations to put their views before the committee in writing. They usually also hold public hearings, inviting or calling on people to appear before them to present their case and be questioned. Where the matters being investigated concern people or organisations beyond the capital city, committees will often hold hearings in other centres or travel to key locations to make it easier for people to present evidence to them. Most of the people who appear before committees or make submissions are experts or represent particular groups or viewpoints in the community. In this way evidence, ideas and opinions from the wider community directly helps the committee and the Parliament make decisions. After considering all the evidence, the committee produces a report to Parliament which surveys the issues, summarises their investigation and makes a series of recommendations as to what action the government should take. The report is presented to the government in Parliament (tabled) and it is then up to the government as to which recommendations it will act on and which ones it will not.

Committees are made up of members of several political groups but they generally work together in a non-party way. Their membership usually reflects the party numbers in the House, so government members are normally in the majority in Lower House (Legislative Assembly) committees. In Upper House (Legislative Council), where a government rarely has a majority of members, committees may have more ‘cross bench’ members (those who do not belong to the government or major opposition parties) and less government members. When a committee is inquiring into a controversial subject, the inquiry and the report may attract a lot of publicity, which in itself may make people more aware of the issues. Sometimes a committee is critical of a government’s activities, and the government may have to defend its actions or change them. With the work of parliament and government becoming more complex, the importance, work and number of committees has increased over the years.