Volunteer Grants Electorate Office Survey - Privacy Notice

Your personal information is protected by law, including under the Privacy Act 1988(Opens in a new tab/window) (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 of your personal information, as required by the Privacy Act.

What is the purpose of the survey?

The Department is seeking feedback from Federal Members of Parliament (MPs), or their electorate staff, in relation to their Expression of Interest (EOI) process ahead of the 2025-26 Volunteer Grants application period where MPs were responsible for nominating organisations for funding.

Survey responses will help the Department understand the demand and impact of the EOI process on MPs and their electorate offices, how the Department can provide further support and guidance, and improve the design and delivery of future rounds. 

The survey is hosted on GovCMS, which is accessible to overseas IT and technical staff as part of the Department of Finance’s administration of the platform.

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 to 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 your 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. 

What we collect

The survey is designed to collect feedback at an electorate-level only and does not seek to record direct identifiers such as names, contact details, or any other information that directly identifies MPs, electorate staff, community organisations or volunteers.

Please do not provide any personal or sensitive information about yourself or any other third party or individual, unless you have their consent or are otherwise authorised to disclose the information on their behalf. 

Participation in the survey is voluntary. If you do not wish to submit a survey response, this will not impact the work you do with the Department. 

Who will collect your personal information 

If you submit a survey response your personal information will be collected by the Department, as well Salsa Digital and their subcontractors amaze.io, who are the website hosts for this survey. The Department has engaged Salsa Digital and amaze.io via the Department of Finance’s GovCMS offering. You can find out more information about GovCMS(Opens in a new tab/window). 

How we use and collect your personal information

The Department may use your survey responses to better understand the demand and impact of the EOI process on MPs and their electorate offices, how the Department can provide further support and guidance, and improve the design and delivery of future rounds. 

Who we disclose your personal information to 

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

• Salsa Digital
• amaze.io
• other parties where disclosure is required or authorised by law. If we receive information in response to these consultations that indicate 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. 
• our contracted service providers that assist us with the management of our website and ICT systems. 

Overseas disclosure 

If you submit a survey response, your information may be sent or stored overseas by the survey platform amazee.io (which is owned by Salsa Digital) for overseas processing. You can find further information about how your information may be handled in Sala Digital’s Privacy Policy(Opens in a new tab/window) and amazee.io’s Privacy Policy(Opens in a new tab/window).

Storage of your personal information

If you do include personal information in your survey responses, storage of this 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.

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 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 complaints@dss.gov.au.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The Department uses AI to improve how we work and deliver services. As part of the Review, the Department will use Microsoft Copilot to:

• process, categorise and summarise responses
• understand trends

You can find more information about the Deparments use of AI in the AI Transparency Statement.