Public Voice Guidelines

Strong opinions are welcome. Abuse is not.

Public Voice is a civic space, not a comment section. These guidelines exist so that every Australian — including the people you disagree with — can be heard safely and respectfully.

What we welcome

✓Constructive community concerns backed by lived experience
✓Evidence-based policy proposals with clear sources
✓Practical local improvement ideas for councils and communities
✓Respectful state and federal policy suggestions
✓Youth and student voices on the future they want to inherit
✓First Nations perspectives on Country, culture and community
✓Multicultural and interfaith proposals for shared civic life
✓Solutions-first submissions from teachers, veterans, small business owners and volunteers

What we do not allow

✕Racism, hate speech and racial vilification
✕Threats, intimidation and incitement to violence
✕Harassment, bullying and personal attacks
✕Defamation of individuals or organisations
✕Doxxing or sharing another person's private information
✕Spam, promotional content and repeated duplicate submissions
✕Party-political abuse and dehumanising language toward opponents
✕Knowingly false claims, misinformation or fabricated sources

How submissions are reviewed

Every submission is reviewed by a human moderator before it is published for community support. Moderators check for compliance with these guidelines, factual clarity, and whether the proposal is directed to the right level of government (local, state or federal).

Moderators may approve a submission, request edits, mark it as a duplicate of an existing proposal, or decline it. Where a submission is declined, we tell you why.

How support thresholds work

Each Public Voice proposal has a support threshold based on the level of government it is directed to. Default thresholds are:

Local
100
verified supporters
State
500
verified supporters
Federal
1,000
verified supporters

Only signed-in users can support a submission, and each person may support a given proposal once.

After a threshold is reached

When a proposal reaches its support threshold, our editorial team prepares a formal submission package — the proposal, the evidence, the community voices in support — and directs it to the relevant local council, state department or federal representative.

We publish any response we receive, and we track the status of the submission openly on the proposal page. We do not guarantee government action. What we guarantee is that community voices reach the right desk, in a form that is hard to ignore.

Respectful civic debate

Australians disagree — that is not a problem to be solved. The problem is disagreement that dehumanises the person on the other side. If you would not say it face-to-face in a community hall, do not post it here.

Browse Public Voice Editorial standards