Response to Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability Consultation – Privacy Notice

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

The Department of Social Services (Department, we, us, our), 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 and handling of your personal information, as required by the Privacy Act.

Purpose of this consultation

The Department is inviting stakeholders and community members to provide their views on recommendations made by the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (Disability Royal Commission (DRC)).

Consultation with people with disability, their families and carers, advocates and representative organisations, disability service providers, workers and unions will inform the Government’s response to the final report of the DRC, released on 29 September 2023. It will also influence prioritisation and implementation of the response – which will affect the breadth of policy-making in Australia.

The initial consultation process will include a simple survey on the DSS Engage page, which will collect demographic data on those surveyed, as well as the top three recommendations they support; and the top three they do not support. To allow for more detailed and/or complex views to be shared by stakeholders, the DSS Engage page will also invite submissions as part of the survey process and via email.

Survey

For individuals, your name (or pseudonym) and an email address is required to complete the survey. If you are responding on behalf of an organisation (such as a community organisation or other organisation), we will ask you for your full name, your work email address and the name of the organisation you are responding on behalf of. We will also collect demographic information as it will be important that the Consultation is able to assess the views held by different groups.

Submissions

If you are an individual making a submission on behalf of an organisation (such as a community organisation or other organisation), we will ask you for your full name, your work email address, and the name of the organisation that you are making the submission on behalf of. We will handle your ‘personal information’ in accordance with the Privacy Act, as detailed in this Privacy Notice, and in accordance with the Department’s Privacy Policy.

You will be required to provide your name and email address. If you are responding to the survey as an individual, you can choose to remain anonymous by providing a pseudonym. The Department’s intention is for individuals who wish to provide feedback to have the choice to not be identified, or be reasonably identifiable. However, even where individuals choose to remain anonymous, it is possible that the individual may still be identifiable due to various factors (for example, if you include personal information in your submission). It is also possible that other individuals may be identified, or be reasonably identifiable, from the information you provide in your submission. Where we are able to identify, or can reasonably identify, you or another person from your submission, we will handle your response in accordance with the Privacy Act as it will be ‘personal information’ that has been collected by the Department.

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 or 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 aspects of the Consultation.

What personal information we collect

Individuals

Through your participation in the Consultation, we may collect a range of personal information, some of which could be sensitive information.

The personal information we will require includes your views on the recommendations of the Disability Royal Commission’s final report.

The personal information we will ask for, includes:

  • Name (optional for the survey and individual submissions) – first and surname
  • Age
  • Gender
  • whether you are a community member or represent a government, non-government or not-for-profit organisation;
  • location information, such as the state or territory you live in and the type of geographic location (for example, remote/ regional/ metropolitan);
  • First nations status
  • Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD)
  • Disability Status
  • LGBTQIA+ status
  • Email address

We may also collect personal information from you, if you include personal information in your submission.

Organisations

Through your participation in this Consultation, we will collect your full name, work email address, and the name of the organisation that you are making the submission on behalf of, as well as location information, such as the state or territory you live in and the type of geographic location (for example, remote/ regional/ metropolitan) and target demographic . Your ‘personal information’ will be handled in accordance with the Privacy Act and this Notice, and in accordance with the Department’s broader Privacy Policy.

How we collect your personal information

If your personal information is collected, we will do this by collecting information from your response to the Consultation (which is undertaken through the Department’s website: Engage.dss.gov.au).

Why we collect your personal information

The Consultation will inform the Government’s response to the final report of the Disability Royal Commission, released on 29 September 2023. Your views will inform Government decision making on reform and change.

Survey responses collected as part of the Consultation will be summarised in an aggregated and de-identified format into a report which will be provided to the Minister for Social Services, policy areas, other relevant Government agencies and third parties assisting us in preparing the government response to the Disability Royal Commission.

Submissions collected as part of this Consultation will be summarised in an aggregated and de-identified format into a report which will be provided to the Minister for Social Services, policy areas, other relevant Government agencies and third parties assisting us in preparing the government response to the Disability Royal Commission and published on the Engage.dss.gov.au website.

Submissions will not be published by the Department unless we make direct contact with you to obtain consent to do so. In the event publication of your submission is required and agreed, the Department will take steps to remove any personal information that you have not consented to the release of (such as your name and email address, and personal information related to other individuals).

Some of the information collected by us from our targeted or public consultations or Consultations has research value in developing policies that extend beyond the specific consultation or Consultation 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 research purposes. In doing so, we will apply the Australian Privacy Principles to the handling of any personal information.

Individuals

If you do not provide your ‘personal information’ (including sensitive information, such as the optional information we ask for), we will still be able to consider your views as part of this Consultation process and your identity will remain anonymous.

Organisations

If you are making a submission on behalf of an organisation, you are asked to provide your name, email address, and the name of your organisation. If this information is not provided, you are unable to make a submission on behalf of the named organisation. You may, alternatively, wish to make a submission as an individual.

Where you make a submission on behalf of an organisation, you are confirming that you have authority to do so.

Who we disclose your personal information to

Your response and any personal information or sensitive information collected from this Consultation process is accessible to staff at the Department, who are involved in the relevant Consultation process.

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

  • Minister for Social Services, policy areas, other relevant Government agencies and third parties assisting us in preparing the government response to the Disability Royal Commission.
  • entities contracted to provide services to assist us with the response (which may include entities contracted to the Department analysing and reporting on Consultation responses and consultation submissions in an aggregated way, or providing information technology, accessibility, analysis and editing services);
  • Services Australia, for the purposes of assisting the Department to administer DSS Engage and providing the Department with other information technology services; and
  • other parties where the disclosure is required or authorised by law.

All entities contracted by us are subject to strict confidentiality, privacy, and security obligations. If you have any concerns about the disclosure of your information to these entities, please contact complaints@dss.gov.au.

Where you have consented to the publication of your Consultation response, we may first redact parts of your response before disclosing or publishing it, as appropriate. This may occur in circumstances where your response contains information that is not relevant to this Consultation, where it contains personal or sensitive information, where it could potentially defame others, where it is offensive in nature, or where it contains operationally sensitive information.

Any demographic information you provide in your Consultation response will only be used for internal analysis, and will not be published, except as aggregated statistics.

If we receive information in response to this Consultation that indicates there is a risk of harm to the respondent or another person, we are required to report it under Australian Law. This may include referral to the relevant state or territory authorities, in line with the relevant state, territory and Commonwealth legislation.

Storage of your 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 by the Department.

All personal information collected 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 third parties will be handled in accordance with the Privacy Act and stored in accordance with agreed security protocols.

More information

The Department’s Privacy Policy contains more information about how we handle personal information, how you can access personal information that we hold about you, and how you can 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 complaints@dss.gov.au.

Confirmation and consent

By providing personal information as part of your Consultation response, you consent to the Department’s collection and handling of personal information in accordance with this collection notice and the Department’s Privacy Policy.

Please note that you do not need to provide sensitive information if you do not wish to do so.

By providing sensitive information as part of your Consultation response, you consent to the Department collecting your sensitive information and handling your sensitive information in accordance with this collection notice and the Department’s Privacy Policy.