Experts

Expert's duty

An expert has a paramount duty to the panel or advisory committee and not to the person who has engaged them.

An expert will assist the panel or advisory committee on matters relevant to their expertise, they are not an advocate for a party to a proceeding.

Expert statements

Expert statements must be submitted in accordance with directions made at the directions hearing.

Content and form of expert statements

An expert statement must include:

• the name and address of the expert
• the expert's qualifications and experience
• a statement identifying the expert's area of expertise
• a statement identifying other contributors to the statement and their expertise
• all instructions that define the scope of the statement – original and supplementary and whether in writing or oral
• names and qualifications of people that carried out tests or experiments that the expert has relied on.

All electronic material supplied should be unlocked and must be able to be searched and copied.

Expert statements prepared for the panel or advisory committee

An expert statement prepared for a panel or advisory committee should include:

• the facts, matters and all assumptions that the expert relies on
• reference to reports, documents and other material the expert has been instructed to consider in preparing their statement
• a summary of the expert’s opinion/s and any recommendations
• identification  of qualified or provisional opinions and the reason they are qualified or provisional
• any matters included in the expert’s instructions that fall outside the expert's expertise.

The expert must declare at the end of the statement:

‘I have made all the inquiries that I believe are appropriate and to my knowledge, no matters of significance which I regard as relevant have been withheld from the panel/advisory committee.’

Expert reports used for the amendment or proposal

If an expert has prepared a report that was used to inform preparation of an amendment or proposal, their expert statement can adopt that report without re-stating it.  The expert statement should provide a brief summary that includes:

• reference to the report or reports that the expert adopts
• the expert’s role in preparing or overseeing the report/s
• the key assumptions made in preparing the report
• confirmation that the expert adopts the report/s
• any departures from the finding or opinions expressed in the report/s
• an indication of whether the report/s are incomplete or inaccurate in any respect, or require updates.

Privacy

Expert statements are generally published on the planning authority’s website, and in some cases on the Engage Victoria website.

Experts need to be aware of their obligations in the Information Privacy Act 2000, particularly when using personal information contained in submissions provided to them.

Expert statements should not refer to any individual submitter by name. If necessary submitters should be referred to by submission number.

Find out more about how we manage privacy.

Change of opinion on a material matter

If an expert changes an opinion on a material matter (for instance, based on another expert's statement), they must circulate written advice of that change to the panel or advisory committee and parties as soon as practicable.  They must specify reasons why their opinion has changed.

Expert conferences and joint experts report

The panel or advisory committee may direct that experts hold a conference of experts and prepare a joint experts report or both.

The panel or advisory committee may direct a joint experts report to:

• address specific issues
• provide details any matters agreed and not agreed, including in relation to the facts and assumptions relied on by the experts in producing their expert statements
• reasons for agreement or disagreement.

If any expert is instructed not to reach agreement in respect of points of difference, the expert must report those instructions in writing to the panel or advisory committee.

Page last updated: 17/10/25