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Privacy Policy

 

About this policy

The Ovens Murray Family Violence Partnership, hence forth referred to as OMFVP, is committed to ensure compliance with the Australian Privacy Act 1988, including the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) and other relevant legislation and standards – such as the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2024 (VIC), including the Information Privacy Principles (IPPs) –  in relation to the collection, management and protection of personal and sensitive information collected by us as part of our work including our website and client engagements.

Throughout this document, the words ‘we’, ‘us’ or ‘our’ refer to the OMFVP.

 

Scope

This policy applies to all employees, contractors and visitors at locations under the management of or engaged by OMFVP.

 

Definitions

Personal information: Following the Privacy Act 1988, personal information is defined as “Information or opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable:

  1. Whether the information or opinion is true or not;
  2. Whether the information or opinion is recorded in material form or not.”

Sensitive information: The Privacy Act 1988 defines sensitive information as:

(a) information or an opinion about an individual’s:

  (i) racial or ethnic origin; or

 (ii) political opinions; or

 (iii) membership of a political association; or

 (iv) religious beliefs or affiliations; or

 (v) philosophical beliefs; or

 (vi) membership of a professional or trade association; or

 (vii) membership of a trade union; or

 (viii) sexual orientation or practices; or

 (ix) criminal record;

  that is also personal information; or

 (b) health information about an individual; or

 (c) genetic information about an individual that is not otherwise health information; or

 (d) biometric information that is to be used for the purpose of automated biometric verification or biometric identification; or

 (e) biometric templates.

 

Your rights

When using our website and/or services and when we collect personal information about you, you may have certain rights under privacy legislation (e.g., APPs and IPPs). These rights may include:

  • The right to be informed – You have the right to be informed about personal information we collect from you and how this information is processed.
  • The right of access – You have the right to get confirmation that we process personal information about you and you have the right to access this information in line with applicable legislation.
  • The right of rectification – Should you become aware that personal information we have collected is incorrect, incomplete or otherwise lacking accuracy, then you have the right to have such information rectified, completed or otherwise updated to reflect the accurate state.
  • The right to erasure / right to be forgotten – You have the right to request removal or deletion of personal information about you if there exists no compelling reason for us to retain the information and/or process it.
  • The right to restrict processing – You have the right to restrict the processing of personal information about you if statutory reasons apply. This means that we can retain your personal information but are restricted in the way we can use it.
  • Right to data portability – You have the right to request personal information we hold about you for your own purposes.
  • The right to object – You have the right to object to us processing personal information about you at any time on grounds relating to your specific situation.
  • Automated individual decision-making and profiling – You have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processes or profiling.
  • Filing a complaint with authorities – You have the right to file a complaint with supervisory authorities if you believe that we have not complied with the relevant legislation in relation to your personal information. In Australia, you can lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Respecting your privacy

OMFVP respects your right to privacy and is committed to safeguarding the privacy of our collaborators, clients, staff, customers and website visitors and members of the public. We comply with the Australian Privacy Principles, the Privacy Act 1988 and also other regulatory and legislative requirements where applicable in handling personal information that we collect from our collaborators, website visitors, members of the public, clients as well as OMFVP personnel. “Personal information” is information, including sensitive and health information, or an opinion which is identifiable as being about you. This policy sets out how we collect and manage your personal information, our responsibilities and your rights in relation to your information.

 

Collection of personal information 

The type of information we collect will depend on your relationship with our organisation. This includes, but is not limited to, information about:

    • Clients,
    • Collaborators (including contractors),
    • Employees,
    • Research and Evaluation participants,
    • Webinar attendees,
    • Workshop participants,
    • Website visitors.

OMFVP will, from time to time, receive and store personal information you enter onto our website, provided to us directly or given to us in other forms.

The information we may collect includes, but is not limited to:

    • Name,
    • Telephone numbers,
    • Address,
    • Email address,
    • Organisational details,
    • Bank account details

We may collect additional information at times, including but not limited to, when you provide feedback, when you provide information about your personal or business affairs, change your content or email preference, respond to surveys and/or promotions or communicate with our customer support.

Additionally, we may also collect any other information you provide while interacting with us during including, for example, during interviews, telephone calls or other ways.

 

How we collect your personal information

OMFVP may collect personal information from you in a variety of ways, including when you interact with us electronically or in person, when you access our website and when we provide our services to you. In some circumstances, we may also receive personal information about an individual from third parties, including our clients. If we do, we rely on the third party providing the information to have the right to do so. This information is considered part of the personal information and we will protect it as set out in this Privacy Policy. In line with the Privacy Act 1988, we will only collect information that is necessary for our business processes or to provide services to our clients. Where data is collected as part of commissioned research, analyses or evaluations, we will implement processes that strictly adhere to the Australian Code for the Responsible conduct of Research, 2018 (National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), 2018). This will include obtaining approval to conduct research from an NHMRC approved Human Research Ethics Committee.

 

Use of your personal information

OMFVP may use personal information collected by us for purposes including, but not limited to:

    • Communicate with our clients, collaborators, staff, or other individuals (for example, in response to enquiries),
    • Provision of our services and products including but not limited to:
      • Commissioned research and analyses,
      • Commissioned evaluation of services, programs or interventions,
      • Development of training material and professional development resources
      • Development of other outputs from commissioned work including presentations, reports, articles etc.
    • Communicate information, updates and our services or make you aware of new and additional products, services and opportunities available to you.
    • We may use your personal information to improve our products and services and better understand your needs.
    • Purposes related to our general management, reporting and procurement, such as invoicing,
    • Other purposes related to our services and business activities (e.g., photos taken during workshops that may be used for promotional activities).
    • OMFVP may contact you by a variety of measures including, but not limited to telephone, email, sms or mail

Disclosure of your personal information

OMFVP will not sell, rent, or lend your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes.

We may disclose your personal information to any of our employees, officers, insurers, professional advisers, agents, suppliers or subcontractors insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this Policy. Personal information is only supplied to a third party when it is required for the delivery of our services.

 

In some circumstances, we may also need to disclose personal information to comply with a legal requirement, such as a law, regulation, court order, subpoena, warrant, in the course of a legal proceeding or in response to a law enforcement agency request.

 

We may also use your personal information to protect the copyright, trademarks, legal rights, property or safety of OMFVP, www.omfvp.org.au, its customers or third parties.

 

Information that we collect may in certain circumstances be stored, processed in or transferred between parties located in other locations. These locations may include, but are not limited to Australia.

 

If there is a change of control in our business or a sale or transfer of business assets, we reserve the right to transfer to the extent permissible at law our user databases, together with any personal information and non-personal information contained in those databases. This information may be disclosed to a potential purchaser under an agreement to maintain confidentiality. We would seek to only disclose information in good faith and where required by any of the above circumstances.

 

Where we disclose your personal information to third parties, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that third parties adhere to privacy obligations regarding handling your personal information. However, in some circumstances, where a third party may be located outside Australia, laws and restrictions may differ to those set out in the Australian Privacy Principles and the Privacy Act 1988. We are committed to protecting personal information, your privacy and our confidentiality obligations under all circumstances and any disclosure of personal information will be completed in full compliance of the Privacy Act 1988, any relevant additional privacy legislation (e.g., Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (VIC)), and, where applicable, the Australian Code for the Responsible conduct of Research, 2018 (National Health and Medical Research Council, 2018)).

 

By providing us with personal information, you consent to the terms of this Privacy Policy and the types of disclosure covered by this Policy.

 

Privacy of our Events, Workshops and Webinars

When you register for an event, workshop or webinar conducted and hosted by us, we will collect personal information from you to enable us to provide this service to you. This privacy notice applies to all of our events and webinars – whether offered for free or for a fee. 
The webinar registration will require you to provide personal information that includes, but is not limited to, the following:

  • Your name,
  • Your email address,
  • Your phone or mobile number,
  • State/territory where you are located,
  • Company or Organisation,
  • Accessibility requirements
  • Your reason to attend the event, workshop or webinar
  • How you became aware of the event, workshop or webinar

Collection of information and records during or after events, workshops and webinars

  • Some of our events, workshops and webinars may be recorded. If this is the case, you will be made aware of this matter through either announcements, signage or pop-up windows (for webinars and online workshops).
  • We may also take pictures and photographs during our events, workshops and webinars.
  • Records, pictures and photographs of our events may be made public, including for marketing purposes, using various channels such as our website, on social media, newsletters or media.
  • Should you not want to be featured in these recordings, pictures or photographs, please advise us prior or during the event, workshop or webinar. 
  • Where recordings of webinars or workshops are produced for public availability, it is your responsibility to turn off your device camera and use a pseudonym as your screen name as we may publish this material unedited.
  • During workshops, events and webinars, we may also ask you to participate in activities that generate outputs, records or other materials (e.g., posters,  drawings, feedback etc.). Should we intend to use these materials for further purposes – for example, as part of training materials, or in our marketing – we will ask you for your consent prior to processing or publication of these materials. 
  • At the end of or after events, workshops or webinars, we may also ask you to provide feedback to us about your service experience and any recommendations you may have for us to improve our services. Participation in feedback surveys are completely voluntary and will not affect your eligibility of receiving the service or the quality of service we provide to you . 

Why we collect this information 

  • We collect information from you to:
    • Register you to attend an event, workshop or webinar,
    • Provide information to you regarding future events, workshops or webinars, 
    • Enable us to understand who participates and attends in our events, webinars or workshops,
    • Provide resources to you related to the event, workshop or webinar, either prior, during or after the event, workshop or webinar.

Management and disclosure of your personal information

  • Personal information provided by you in relation to events, workshops or webinars will be managed and secured in accordance with our processes and procedures as outlined in other sections of this Privacy Policy. 
  • As stated above, OMFVP will not sell, lend or rent your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes.

Use of third party providers

  • Our events, workshops and webinars may be hosted on, or conducted with, software or online platforms provided by third parties such as Microsoft Teams, Webex or Humanitix.
  • These third party providers may have their own privacy practices and processes and terms of use of their services..
  • OMFVP may not be able control or influence these third parties and is not responsible for their privacy practices and terms of use of their services.
  • We encourage attendees and participants of our events, workshops and webinars to be aware when they use software or third party platforms and to familiarise themselves with the privacy statements and relevant policies of these third party providers.

Privacy of our website

As part of our function, we operate the website https://www.omfvp.org.au

 

When you visit our website

  • When you come to our website (www.omfvp.org.au) we may collect certain information such as browser type, operating system, website visited immediately before coming to our site, etc. This information is used in an aggregated manner to analyse how people use our site, such that we can improve our service.

Cookies

  • We may from time to time use cookies on our website. Cookies are very small files which a website uses to identify you when you come back to the site and to store details about your use of the site. Cookies are not malicious programs that access or damage your computer. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies but you can choose to reject cookies by changing your browser settings. However, declining consent to use cookies may prevent you from taking full advantage of our website. Our website may from time to time use cookies to analyse website traffic and help us provide a better website visitor experience. In addition, cookies may be used to serve relevant ads to website visitors through third party services such as Google Adwords. These ads may appear on this website or other websites you visit. 

Google Analytics

  • Our website uses Google Analytics and related services to monitor the traffic on our website www.omfvp.org.au. As part of this functionality, Google collects certain information from visitors of our websites. Google manages this information in line with its own policies, which you can access at Google’s Data privacy and security – Analytics Help.

Third party sites

  • Our site may have links to other websites not owned or controlled by us (e.g., videos, images, blogs, news articles). These links are meant for your convenience only. Links to third party websites do not constitute sponsorship or endorsement or approval of these websites or content. Please be aware that OMFVP is not responsible for the privacy practises or content of other such websites. We encourage our users to be aware, when they leave our website, to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personal identifiable information.

Security of your personal information

 

OMFVP is committed to ensuring that the information you provide to us is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we endeavour to implement all reasonable steps including physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure information and protect it from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification and disclosure.

All employees, agents, contractors or volunteers of OMFVP are required to comply with this Privacy Policy and adhere to existing confidentiality and privacy obligations in relation to individuals and their information.

 

Access to your personal information

 

You may request details of personal information that we hold about you in accordance with the provisions of the Privacy Act 1988. A small administrative fee may be payable for the provision of information. If you would like a copy of the information that we hold about you or believe that any information about you is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, please email us at info@omfvp.org.au.

Depending on the nature of your request, it may take up to 30 days from the date of receipt of a valid request for OMFVP to provide you with access to your data.

Please note that you will be required to provide a formal proof of your identity (e.g., driver’s licence or passport) before being granted access to your data.

We reserve the right to refuse to provide you with information that we hold about you, in certain circumstances set out in the Privacy Act 1988.

 

How long do we store you personal information

 

We will retain personal information only as long as required to fulfil the purpose for which the data was collected. The exact time period of data retention will depend on the circumstances under which data is collected. For example, for research and evaluation projects, data retention is managed in compliance with the Australian Code for the Responsible conduct of Research, 2018 (National Health and Medical Research Council, , 2018) in addition to relevant statutory requirements (e.g., Privacy Act 1988).

Unless required for legal reasons, we will securely destroy any personal information as required where the retention period for the data has expired.

 

Complaints about privacy

 

OMFVP takes matters concerning privacy very seriously.

If you have any complaints about our privacy practices, please contact us in writing through our website or by sending an email directly to info@omfvp.org.au.

We will treat all complaints as strictly confidential and will attempt to resolve any matter in a timely manner.

 

Changes to this Privacy Policy

 

In response to our dynamic business environment, we aim to regularly review this Privacy Policy to ensure its currency. We may update this Privacy Policy at any time by publishing a modified version of this Policy on our website.

This Privacy Policy was last updated on 10 July , 2025.