What you need to know
You can request a debrief meeting with the MSAC Chair and departmental officers from our secretariat and the relevant policy team to:
- clarify the rationale behind our decision to not support your application or defer our advice
- find out more about matters that we considered when appraising your application
- get advice from experienced departmental officers about your options, including general advice about re-applying.
If we did not support your application, this meeting can help you to understand the concerns we raised in the public summary document. This can be useful if you choose to reapply later.
The intent of a debrief meeting is to have an open discussion that is non-binding on all attendees. You must form your own judgement about how to use any advice.
Who can request these meetings
You can request a debrief meeting if we:
- did not support your application for public funding
- deferred finalising our advice on funding for your application.
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You can nominate employees of your organisation or external advisors (such as health professionals or consumer matter experts) to:
- attend the meeting with you
- attend on your behalf.
You should only bring representatives who can contribute to the meeting based on the key points for discussion.
You must ensure all representatives understand and agree to the confidentiality requirements.
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Your representatives must not lobby our secretariat or other departmental officers.
Lobbying means communicating with a government representative to influence government decision-making. To find out more, see the lobbying code of conduct.
What these meetings are not for
Do not use this meeting to:
- introduce new information or data
- contest the MSAC outcome
- get opinions or views on matters that we did not discuss
- seek detailed advice about re-applying.
If you want specific advice about addressing our concerns when you re-apply, you should request a pre-application meeting.
What you need to do
1. Complete the request form
Complete the request form you received with the public summary document. In the form, you will need to:
- provide the names and emails of your representatives and what their role at the meeting will be
- tick the times that suit you and number them in order of your preference. The times in the form are when the MSAC Chair is available.
You will also need to provide key points for discussion. This can be up to 2 pages long. Include:
- what you are confused, uncertain or concerned about
- the type of information you are seeking
- references to any relevant parts of the public summary document.
This will help our secretariat to prepare for the meeting and ensure the right departmental officers attend.
2. Submit the request
Send the completed request form and key points for discussion to our secretariat in the Health Products Portal within 10 business days.
If your questions can be addressed without a meeting or are not appropriate for a debrief meeting, our secretariat will contact you. Our secretariat may also:
- contact you before the meeting for more information or to clarify the points for discussion
- delay the meeting if you do not provide the key points. The MSAC Chair will not attend delayed meetings.
3. Attend the meeting
The meeting will be held via videoconference or teleconference, or a combination of both. It will be up to one hour long. Our secretariat will email a meeting invite to all attendees with the relevant details. They will not keep a record of the debrief meeting.
You or your representatives are welcome to keep a record of the meeting. You should capture the advice provided in response to the key points. You must not digitally record the meeting or use artificial intelligence (AI) to transcribe the meeting.
4. Provide the meeting record (if you make one)
Within 10 business days after the meeting, you must provide your meeting record to our secretariat. Use a format our secretariat can easily access, such as Microsoft Word.
Within 10 business days of receiving the record, the MSAC Chair and the departmental officers (if they attended) will:
- review the record
- confirm the main discussion points or provide information about any discrepancies.
The meeting record will then be considered final. You should note that:
- the response to the record is also non-binding
- this is not an opportunity for you to seek extra advice.
Next steps
If we did not support your application, you may wish to re-apply after addressing our concerns.
Contact
Contact your application manager or our secretariat if you have any questions.
