Privacy Policy

Carers Queensland’s Commitment to Protecting and Supporting Your Privacy

Carers Queensland is committed to protecting and supporting your right to privacy by managing (including collecting, storing, reporting archiving, and disposing) personal information in a manner that complies with the Privacy Act 1988 and the 13 Australian Privacy Principles (personal information’ means information, or an opinion, about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable).'

The Kinds of Personal Information We Collect and Hold

Your personal information is only collected if you give us consent to do so. Consent can be either in writing or verbally. If consent is given verbally, a note will be made on your file that you have given verbal consent.

Carers Queensland will only collect information that is necessary to provide services to you. This information may include the following:

“Your name, address, contact details, health information, gender, cultural identity, health status, special care needs, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander status, communication needs (e.g. interpreter or translator), Centrelink number, bank details (for loan applications), criminal history, superannuation and tax file numbers (for employees), emergency contact information, drivers licence or other forms of identification or other information deemed necessary to provide you with the service you are seeking”.

How We Collect Personal Information

We may ask you to provide us with certain types of personal information if you wish to obtain a particular service from us. This might happen over the telephone, through our website, by filling in a paper form, or meeting with us face-to-face. We will explain how we will use the personal information we are asking for. The notice may be written or verbal.

You might also provide your personal information to us, without us directly asking for it, for example, if you engage with us on social media.

Information That We Collect From Others

If you apply for a job or contract with us, we will collect personal information about you from your referees. With your consent, we may also use a third-party service to ensure your employment, educational identity and criminal history records are valid. We may also check some details about our suppliers from publicly available sources, such as the Australian Business Register and ASIC databases.

Information We Generate Ourselves

We maintain records of the interactions we have with clients, including the products and services we have provided to you, records of conversations and complaints, information about you and your family including age, medical conditions, household income, and complaint records.

We collect limited information about users of our websites, for diagnostic and analytic purposes. We use cookies and gather IP addresses to do so, but we do not trace these back to individual users.

The types of personal information we collect about our clients includes:

  • name and contact details
  • parent/guardian name and contact details
  • demographic information
  • health information
  • household income and employment status

Links to Other Sites

On our website, we may provide links to third party websites. These linked sites are not under our control, and we cannot accept responsibility for the conduct of companies linked to our website. Before providing your personal information via any other website, we advise you to examine the terms and conditions of using that website and its privacy policy.

How We Use Personal Information

We may use your personal information for the following purposes:

  • to provide the service or product you have requested
  • to provide technical or other support to you
  • to answer your enquiry about our services, or to respond to a complaint
  • to manage our employment or business relationship with you
  • to promote our other programs, products or services which may be of interest to you (unless you have opted out from such communications)
  • to comply with legal and regulatory obligations
  • if otherwise permitted or required by law, or
  • for other purposes with your consent, unless you withdraw your consent.

We will keep personal information about you, to use for the above purposes, for a period of seven years after you cease services or for as long as relevant legislation requires.

When We Disclose Personal Information

Our Third-Party Service Providers

The personal information of clients, employees, suppliers, and other contacts may be held on our behalf by third-party service providers ‘in the cloud,’ by our third-party service providers.  Our third-party service providers are bound by contract to only use your personal information on our behalf, under our instructions.

Other Disclosures and Transfers

We may also disclose your personal information to third parties for the following purposes:

  • if necessary to provide the service or product you have requested
  • if necessary for the safety of you or others
  • if otherwise permitted or required by law or
  • for other purposes with your consent.

Security of Your Personal Information

We will take reasonable security measures to protect personal information from loss, unauthorised access, use, modification, or disclosure.

We will take reasonable steps to ensure personal information is stored securely, not kept longer than necessary, and disposed of appropriately.

Accessing or Correcting Your Personal Information

You have the right to request access to the personal information Carers Queensland holds about you. Unless an exception applies, we must allow you to see the personal information we hold about you within 30 days and without charge.

Individuals will be required to provide photographic proof of identity, including current residential address before any records will be released. Access to some records may be limited if providing this access potentially breaches another individual’s privacy.

You also have the right to request the correction of the personal information we hold about you. We will take reasonable steps to make appropriate corrections to personal information so that it is accurate, complete, and up to date.  Unless an exception applies, we must update, correct, amend, or delete the personal information we hold about you within 30 days. We do not charge for making corrections.

To seek access to, or correction of, your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer.

To Contact our Privacy Officer

If you have an enquiry or a complaint about the way we have handled your personal information, or to seek to exercise your privacy rights in relation to the personal information we hold about you, you may contact our Privacy Officer in the Quality and Assurance Team as follows:

Email Phone Post
privacy@carersqld.com.au 07 39008137 Quality and Assurance Team

Carers Queensland Ltd.

PO Box 769

Lutwyche QLD 4030

While we endeavor to resolve complaints quickly and informally, if you wish to proceed to a formal privacy complaint, we request that you make your complaint in writing to our Privacy Officer, by mail or email as above. We will acknowledge your formal complaint within 10 working days. Further information about Carers Queensland Feedback and Complaints processes can be found within the Feedback and Complaints Procedure.

If we do not resolve your privacy complaint to your satisfaction, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) by calling them on 1300 363 992, making a complaint online at www.oaic.gov.au, or writing to them at OAIC, GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001.