National Disability Advocacy Framework – APP 5 Privacy Collection Notice

Your personal information is protected by law, including under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act).

The Department of Social Services (department, we, us), collects personal information about individuals for a range of purposes to enable it to carry out its functions. More information about how we handle your personal information is set out in our Privacy Policy.

This privacy collection notice is designed to ensure you are aware of certain matters in relation to the department’s collection of your personal information, as required by the Privacy Act.

What is the purpose of this Consultation?

The department is inviting stakeholders to provide their views on the draft National Disability Advocacy Framework 2022-2025 (NDAF).

We have designed the Consultation to obtain views from stakeholders to inform changes the content of the draft NDAF ahead of finalisation and official release.

As part of this Consultation you will be asked to provide information, including personal information. Mostly, it is your choice what personal information you provide to us. To make a submission you are only required to provide your email address and your name or other identifying information. If you do not want to use your name you could provide a pseudonym so you cannot be identified.

The department’s intention is for participants to not be identified or be reasonably identifiable. However, this may not always be possible due to various factors (e.g. free text boxes and the nature of the questions asked). Where we are able to identify you or another person (or reasonably identify you or another person) from your response, we will handle your response in accordance with the Privacy Act.

We may collect, or have already collected, your information (including any personal information) for one or more of the above purposes. This notice is designed to ensure you are aware of the purpose and certain matters in relation to that collection, as required by the Privacy Act.

As part of this Consultation, your information may be disclosed to external consultants who may be engaged to assist the department to analyse information collected through consultation and develop changes to the final version of the NDAF.

What is ‘personal information’ and ‘sensitive information’?

‘Personal information’ is information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable. This applies whether the personal information is true or not and whether the personal information is recorded in a material form or not. For example, personal information can include an individual’s name, signature, residential address, phone number, email address, date of birth, photographs, employment information, location information from mobile devices and internet protocol addresses.

‘Sensitive information’ is a subset of personal information. It includes information or an opinion about an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, membership of associations or unions, sexual orientation or practices, criminal record, or health, genetic or biometric information. Health information includes any information regarding whether an individual has a disability and the nature of their disability.

Who is collecting your personal information?

Your personal information is being collected by the department and by Services Australia, who will be assisting the department with some of the information technology (IT) aspects of the Consultation.

What personal information we collect

Through your participation in the Consultation, we may collect some personal information (some of which could be sensitive information) if you choose to provide that information to us.

The personal information we will require includes your:

name or other identifying information (you can choose to use a pseudonym); and
email address.

The personal information we will ask for, but is optional to provide, includes:

your disability status, CALD status, sexual orientation, and if you identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander;
location information, such as your state or territory and if that is remote/regional/metro;
the name of the organisation that you represent, if applicable;
information about whether you are a carer, parent or family member of a person with a disability;
any feedback and comments you wish to share, such as your experiences with disability advocacy services; and
your personal views on the draft NDAF.

Please only provide information that you are comfortable to provide.

We may collect personal information from you directly, as well as from other people. For example, we may collect personal information from you about:

your personal views in relation to your experience, and the experience of others, with disability advocacy services; and
your personal views about the draft NDAF.

As part of the Consultation, we will not ask for you to provide your phone number or home address.

You can also choose to provide your own contact details or details of your personal circumstances. Where we are able to identify you (or reasonably identify you) from your response, we will handle your response in accordance with the Privacy Act as it will be ‘personal information’.

We will collect your information (including any personal information) for one or more of the purposes specified in this Privacy Notice.

The personal information that Services Australia will collect is your IP address and information about your device’s operating system.

How we collect your personal information

Your personal information relating to your personal views and lived experience may be collected if you choose to make a submission as part of this Consultation. We will do this by:

collecting information provided by you in your submission lodged through Engage.dss.gov.au; and
collecting information provided by you in an email or postal submission received from you.

Why we collect your personal information

Your personal information is collected for the purposes of informing the content of the NDAF and ensuring that the views of relevant stakeholders (including people with a disability) are incorporated into the design of the NDAF.

The information collected through this Consultation will be used to create a report that summarises stakeholder feedback and issues for consideration in the NDAF. The report will be published on the DSS Engage website.

While you will need to provide an email address and name (or other identifying information) to make a submission, if you do not provide any other personal identifying information (including sensitive information), we will still be able to consider your views in the report and the NDAF and your identity will remain anonymous.

Some of the information collected by us from our targeted or public consultations has research value in developing policies that extend beyond the specific consultation process for which it was originally collected. Where this is the case, the information that we collect from this consultation may be used for our other related research and policy development purposes. In doing so, we will handle your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act.

Who we disclose your personal information to

We may disclose your personal information to the following people, organisations or third parties:

other entities contracted to provide services to assist us with the development of the NDAF, where required (which may include entities contracted to the department to provide information technology, research, accessibility, analysis and editing services);
individuals within agencies, organisations and bodies that will be working with the department on the development of the NDAF, including Ministers and their staff, state and territory governments, and advisory groups to the Australian Government;
Services Australia, for the purposes of assisting the department to administer the DSS Engage website and providing the department with other information technology services; and
other parties where the disclosure is authorised by law.

All entities contracted by us are subject to strict confidentiality, privacy and security obligations.

When making a submission, we ask you if you consent to your submission being made public on the DSS engage website and if you consent to your name being included in the publication of your submission on either the DSS Engage website or in the report. If you do agree, the information you provide in your submission, including personal information, may be published and be made publicly available on the DSS Engage website. Public submissions and details of their author may also be referenced by the department in public forums and documents.

If you do not want your submission or personal information to be published on the website we will still be able to consider your views in the report and the NDAF and your identity will remain anonymous.

We will develop a report of the key issues raised during the consultation process. The report will be published on the DSS Engage website. This report may make reference to individual submissions and their author, and organisation, if applicable, and only if the author has consented to the publication of personal information.

We will not publish your submission if we consider (for any reason) that it should not be made public. We may redact parts of your feedback before publication, as appropriate. This may occur in circumstances where the submission contains information that is not relevant to this Consultation, contains personal or sensitive information, could potentially defame others, is offensive in nature, or contains operationally sensitive information.

If your submission raises specific comments in relation to a serious threat to the life, health or safety of any individual, or to public health or safety, your submission may be referred to the appropriate enforcement agency for the purpose of lessening or preventing a serious threat to the life, health or safety of any individual, or to public health or safety, in accordance with the Privacy Act.

No information about you will be disclosed overseas unless your submission is published or made publicly available, or your information is disclosed to an external consultant or contractor.

Storage of personal information

Storage of personal information (and the disposal of information when no longer required) is managed in accordance with the Australian Government records management regime, including the Archives Act 1983, agency-specific records authorities and general records authorities. This ensures your personal information is held securely.

All personal information collected that is held by the department is stored on Services Australia’s cloud storage, on servers located in Australia. Services Australia and the department retains effective control over any personal information held on our cloud, and the information is handled in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles.

Any information disclosed to external consultants will be handled in accordance with the Privacy Act and stored in accordance with agreed security protocols.

More information

Our Privacy Policy contains more information about how the department handles personal information, how you can access any personal information that we hold and how to seek correction of that personal information. It also contains information about how to make a complaint about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles, as set out in the Privacy Act.

If you have any concerns or questions, you can contact us at privacy@dss.gov.au.

Confirmation and consent

By providing your personal information as part of your Consultation response, you consent to the department collecting your personal information and handling your personal information in accordance with this privacy notice and the department’s privacy policy.