Privacy Policy

Our obligations under the Privacy Act

This Privacy Policy sets out how we comply with our obligations under the Privacy Act. As an Australian Government agency, we are bound by the APPs contained in the Privacy Act which regulate how government agencies collect, use, store and disclose personal information, and how individuals may access and correct personal information held about them. In this Privacy Policy, the terms personal information and sensitive information have the meaning given to those terms in the Privacy Act.

Types of personal information collected and held

The personal information we collect, and hold depends on the type of interaction you have with us. We may collect and hold a variety of personal information about you including:

• information about identity (eg. date of birth, country of birth, passport details, visa details and drivers’ licence);
• name, address and contact details (eg. phone and email);
• information about personal circumstances (eg. age, gender, marital status and occupation);
• information about financial affairs (eg. payment details, bank account details, ABN);
• information about employment (eg. applications for employment, work history, referee comments and remuneration);
• photos, videos or audio of individuals; and
• education details (level of education, study assistance and courses).

We may also collect and hold a variety of sensitive information:

• racial or ethnic origin;
• membership of trade or professional associations or unions;
• criminal record; and
• health information.

Anonymity and pseudonymity

In some situations, we provide the option for individuals to not identify themselves or use a pseudonym when dealing with us (unless it is impracticable to do so, or we are legally required to deal with individuals who identify themselves).

For example, these situations could include when seeking general information about a program, grant or consultation process. Identification will generally only be necessary where it would be inappropriate not to identify yourself, such as if you are enquiring about the status or details of your own application for a particular program.

Collection of your personal information

Where we collect and hold your personal information, it is collected and held for our business purposes, which are generally to provide services to you. We collect and hold a broad range of personal information in records relating to:

• Individuals participating in programs and initiatives that we fund
• The management of contracts and funding agreements
• Individuals on our committees or participating in a meeting or consultation with us
• Correspondence from members of the public or organisations to us
• Complaints (including complaints relating to privacy) and feedback provided to us
• Requests made to us under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth)
• Requests for access to information we hold about you or other information about AgriFutures Australia’s operations
• The performance of our legislative and administrative functions
• Employment and personnel matters for our staff and contractors.

Why do we collect your personal information?

We collect personal information as reasonably necessary to carry out our business which may include but is not limited to the following reasons:

• To coordinate or fund research & development activities (“R&D activities”) and other programs and initiatives in relation to the primary industries that we are responsible for;
• To monitor, evaluate and report to the Parliament, the Minister and its representative organisations on R&D activities that are co-ordinated or funded, wholly or partly, by us;
• To disseminate and commercialise, and facilitate the dissemination, adoption and commercialisation of, the results of R&D activities;
• To carry out marketing activities for the benefit of the primary industries that we are responsible for;
• To provide customer service support to stakeholders associated with our programs, events and/or platforms;
• For our internal business purposes (for example, to prepare metrics and analytics on our portfolio of research projects, or to collect website usage and engagement information); and
• For any other purpose explained to you at the time of Collection.

How we collect your personal information

We generally collect personal information from you when you communicate with us. We collect personal information through a variety of means including the use of forms (either electronic or hard copy), online portals, other electronic or paper correspondence (including emails and written correspondence) and, at times, verbal conversations or interviews. This may include, but is not limited to, the following means:

• Directly from you in the course of delivering our activities or programs;
• When you enter into any agreements with us, including Research Agreements or Provider Agreements in relation to
• AgriFutures Australia’s research activities, or Sponsorship and Exhibition Agreements in relation to our events and programs;
• When you submit emails or electronic forms to us (either in hard or soft copy) for matters such as signing up to newsletters and updates, registering as a participant for the evokeAG. conference, or registering as a promoter or user in relation to the growAG website;
• When you attend a committee or panel meeting, or an event run by us;
• When you submit a request or query to us face-to face, in writing or by telephone; and
• Through the use of automated technologies or interactions such as clickstream data, Google Analytics, cookies, server logs and other similar technologies.

Where possible, when we collect your personal information, we will make a Collection Notice available explaining the purpose of the collection, the intended use of the personal information and to whom we may disclose it. If it is not possible to make the Collection Notice available to you at the time of collection, we will take steps to ensure that you are aware of the collection.

Third Party Collection

When we collect personal information about you, in the majority of cases, this will be information provided directly from you for the particular function or activity we are carrying out.

As well as collecting personal information directly from you, we may also collect your personal information through other individuals or organisations acting our behalf, including those such as contracted service providers. If this occurs, such collection will be in accordance with the APPs.

We may collect personal information about you from a third party if you have been nominated as a representative or a contact person of that entity in its dealings between us and the relevant third party. We may also collect personal information from you from third-party lead-generation organisations and platforms such as LinkedIn. Where we obtain information from third parties, we require them to confirm that your personal information has been lawfully collected.

Consequences if personal information is not collected

If you do not or are unable to provide us with the requested personal information, we may not be able to provide you with the information or services which you have requested or enable you to participate in AgriFutures Australia’s programs, research projects or events.

Storing and securing personal information

We will take all reasonable steps to protect your personal information from loss, unauthorised access, use, modification or disclosure, and against other misuse. Among other things, we take reasonable steps to safeguard our IT systems against unauthorised access, and ensure that paper-based files are secured. We also ensure that access to your personal information within our systems is only available to our staff that needs such access in order to do their work.

When the personal information that we collect is no longer required, we delete or destroy it in a secure manner, unless we are required to maintain it because of a law, or court or tribunal order.

This situation might arise where the Archives Act 1983 (Cth) requires that we maintain your personal information because it is, or forms part of, a Commonwealth record. We are also required to maintain records for certain other purposes, including where the National Archives of Australia issues a disposal freeze in response to prominent or controversial issues or events. More information on current disposal freezes is available from the National Archives of Australia website.

Disclosure of your personal information to third parties

We may disclose your personal information to our related bodies corporate, contractors, agents and third parties in order to provide goods, services or information requested or to carry out certain R&D, reporting or marketing activities as set out above.

We may also provide your personal information to our third-party service providers who provide services in connection with the operation of our business, including research and analytics services (this includes use of personal information in various technologies and software platforms, such as project management tools).

Some personal information may be shared with law enforcement or government where this is mandated by law or funding arrangements – where this occurs the information provided will be aggregated and/or de-identified where possible.

We may disclose your personal information to a third party if the disclosure is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the life, health or safety of you or another person and it is unreasonable or impracticable to obtain your consent.

We, or some of the third parties above, may locate or store your personal information overseas, but only in accordance with the Privacy Act. Overseas recipients are likely to be located in numerous countries.

AgriFutures Australia will not otherwise disclose your personal information without your consent unless required or authorised by law.

Under the Privacy Act we are required to take measures to ensure that when your personal information is to be held by a third party, that the third party complies with the same privacy requirements that apply to us or privacy protections equivalent to Australian privacy law.

We use our best efforts to ensure that there are privacy clauses in all of its legal documents. This is to ensure third parties we deal with are required to handle personal information in accordance with the APPs.

Sensitive information

If we hold any sensitive personal information about you, that information will only be used and disclosed by us if you have consented to such use and disclosure (your provision of that information will be taken to be consent) and will only be used and disclosed for the purpose that it was provided by you.

Direct marketing materials

We may use or disclose personal information (other than sensitive information) collected from you for the purpose of our direct marketing, including but not limited to marketing campaigns by post, email, SMS, telemarketing and social media (Direct Marketing Communications) where you would reasonably expect the information to be used or disclosed for this purpose.

We collect your personal information for the purpose of direct marketing from you directly unless it is unreasonable or impracticable to do so. Where we obtain information from third parties, we require them to confirm that your personal information has been lawfully collected and that you have consented to it being shared and used for direct marketing purposes.

We may use or disclose personal information collected in other circumstances, for the purpose of direct marketing subject to, and in accordance with, the law.

If at any time you do not wish to receive any further Direct Marketing Communications, you may do this at any time by using the “unsubscribe” facility included in the Direct Marketing Communication or by contacting us – you will find the details at the end of this document.

If you opt-out of receiving our Direct Marketing Communications, we may still contact you in relation to our ongoing relationship with you.

How to access and seek correction of personal information

Individuals have a right to request access to their personal information and to request its correction if it is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. Requests for access to or correction of personal information should be directed to our Privacy Officer.

We will take reasonable and practicable steps to provide you access and/or make a correction to your personal information within 30 calendar days, unless we consider there is a sound reason under the Privacy Act or other relevant law to withhold the information or not make the changes.

If we do not provide you access to your personal information, or refuse to correct your personal information, where reasonable we will notify you of the basis of that denial.

How to make a complaint

You can make a complaint if you believe we have breached the APPs or mishandled your personal information. Complaints should be directed to our Privacy Officer whose details are provided below.

If your complaint relates to a notifiable data breach, please note that privacy breaches can be caused by a variety of factors, affect different types of personal information and give rise to a range of actual or potential harm to individuals, agencies and organisations. Consequently, there is no single way of responding to a privacy breach. Any breach will need to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis in accordance with our Notifiable Data Breach Response Plan. All complaints and alleged privacy breaches will be investigated by the Privacy Officer, and the complainant will be advised of the outcome.

For further information about privacy issues, visit the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s website.

Privacy Impact Assessment Register

At AgriFutures Australia, we are committed to protecting the privacy of individuals and handling personal information in a responsible and transparent manner.

AgriFutures Australia has prepared the following Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) Register in accordance with section 15 of the Australian Government Agencies Privacy Code (the Privacy Code). Under the Privacy Code, all agencies, including Corporate Commonwealth Entities like AgriFutures Australia, must conduct a PIA for all projects that significantly impact the way they handle personal information.

The PIA Register sets out the PIAs AgriFutures Australia has completed since 1 June 2019. The PIA register will be updated from time to time as new PIAs are completed.

View the Privacy Impact Assessment Register

Contact

If you wish to make any comments or suggestions about the Privacy Policy or our privacy management practices, you can do so by contacting the Privacy Officer:

Via post
AgriFutures Australia c/o Privacy Officer
Building 007, Tooma Way, Charles Sturt University
Locked Bag 588
Wagga Wagga NSW 2650
AUSTRALIA

Via phone
+61 2 6923 6900

Via email