With the Royal Commission for antisemitism and social cohesion announced, AGD is recruiting and I’m considering applying.

Wondering if anyone can share their experiences working in a RC. What’s the workload, work complexity, flexibility and what kind of people would they attract? What were some of the main challenges you faced?

For context, had the worst boss (biggest bully) join a previous Commission and seemed to do pretty well during their time at the Commission. My concern is if this is the type of people they attract, or it’s case by case. Any experiences you can share will be great and will help me consider! Thank you for reading.

  • Based on the Veterans example, expect to get worked into the ground. There will be plenty of resources at the start but it will quickly diminish.

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  • They’re turning this thing around really fast so it’ll be pretty hectic work and pitching in doing what needs to be done a lot of the time (depending on your qualifications). If you want to work hard then go for it.

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  • Hello, I have previously worked at Royal Commissions Branch at AGD.

    Keep in mind that working for an actual RC, and working for RC Branch within AGD, are totally separate ballgames.

    Within RC Branch you are there to support the Commonwealth's representation and serve as a central coord unit for all Cth agencies, whereas within an actual RC you are there to organise the hearings, coordinate all types of witnesses appearing to give evidence, and make sure the interim and final reports get written and handed down.

    Working for RC Branch is very fast-paced and the workload really ramps up during hearing weeks. When I worked for RC Branch, I would often be working weekends, mainly doing witness statement summaries to send around to Cth agencies, so they had a heads up on what evidence was going to be given during a hearing. During a hearing week, my team and I would need to listen to evidence from every witness and summarise what they said. It's a shit load of typing, and not much room for error. I will say Co-Pilot wasn't a thing back then, so maybe that's changed the dynamic/workload.

    Working in RC Branch can also get very repetitive, because you are summarising and reviewing the same types of evidence from witnesses. You aren't producing work as such, you're pumping out a lot of emails and summaries, and then reviewing risk for the Commonwealth and determining when the Commonwealth might need to respond to evidence.

    Overall, it's a unique way of working and I'm glad I had the chance to do it!

    Hope this assists, and good luck if you apply.

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    Further to silver_wattle’s comment, I haven’t worked for an actual RC either but have coordinated Cth representation before a State RC - we certainly didn’t get a Branch to do it! We had an A/g EL2, EL1, LO and a grad position. It involved travel on a roster to cover hearings - I assume the 2026 RC hearings will be in Sydney where Judge Bell lives. The RC I worked on was one of the best parts of my career. Working with AGS to instruct really amazing female counsel was a high point. As silver-wattle said, much of it is statement review, witness preparation, coordination of documents required by the RC and daily briefing of MOs. I agree the team will likely be well staffed once established, but there will be a lot of tail end work (Government response to report, resulting legislative projects) that won’t get the same resources.

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    I’ve also heard horror stories about culture in one of the RCs that has occurred in the last decade or so. I wonder if it’s the same one that OP refers to.

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  • Hey where are you seeing these jobs? Internal EOIs?

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    Interesting. Do you know if you need to live in CBR for AGD?

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    The ad says location Canberra, office flexible.

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  • Do you need to be based in Canberra to apply?

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