The Great Southern Development Commission (GSDC) respects your right to privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information.

Introduction

This privacy statement explains:

  • how and why GSDC may collect, store and disclose your personal information and for what purpose; and
  • how to access and/or correct your personal information that is held by GSDC.

This statement explains GSDC’s approach to personal information handling practices in recognition of our commitment to the privacy provisions under the Privacy and Responsible Information Sharing Act 2024 (“WA privacy legislation”).

Application

This statement applies to GSDC, its employees and all persons conducting business or activities on behalf of, or with, the department, including visitors, service providers, contractors and volunteers.

Approach

GSDC aims to implement a ‘privacy by design and default’ approach to managing personal information. This means that we will ensure that privacy protections are embedded into the design and architecture of our information technology systems and physical infrastructure from conception.

As a standard business practice, the department will identify and minimise privacy risks associated with any policy changes or new projects. This will assist GSDC’s aim of managing your personal information in an open and transparent way.

What is personal information?

In this statement, the term “personal information” is used to refer to any information or opinion about an individual (living or deceased) that could reasonably be used to identify them. The information or opinion does not have to be true or in a written form.

An individual could be a member of the public, an employee, contractor, supplier or any other stakeholder GSDC corresponds or engages with.

What is sensitive information?

“Sensitive information” is used in this statement to refer to a specific type of personal information which generally has a higher level of privacy protection.  Sensitive information is personal information that contains information or an opinion about specific characteristics of a person including:

  • racial or ethnic origin
  • political opinion or association
  • religious beliefs or affiliations
  • philosophical beliefs
  • trade or professional associations and memberships
  • union membership
  • sexual orientation or practices
  • criminal record
  • health or genetic information
  • certain biometric information.

Personal information GSDC collects

GSDC will typically collect your personal information directly from you. Sometimes GSDC may collect personal information obtained from your authorised representative or via a third party. GSDC collects and holds different types of personal information, such as:

Who you are:

  • name, signature
  • age, date of birth, gender
  • photographs, videos, audio-visual recordings.

Your contact details:

  • street and/or postal address
  • telephone/mobile number, email address
  • emergency contact details, next of kin, referee details.

If you were, or currently are, an employee, contractor or service provider:

  • current and/or former employer, contractor and volunteer roles
  • education, training, qualifications and experience
  • hours of work, remuneration, leave records
  • current and/or past performance, professional development, discipline or performance case management
  • tax file number and superannuation fund details
  • records of engagement, resignation and termination.

Financial information:

  • bank account
  • credit card details
  • licensing, approvals and permits:
  • driver’s licence, equipment licence, and other approvals, licences and permits
  • citizenship, passport and/or visa information, travel details
  • information you give to GSDC via our surveys, forms (hard copy and electronic), attendances at GSDC events or visits by our representatives
  • the products and services you have applied for or enquired to GSDC about, together with any information provided that was necessary to deliver those products and services to you or respond to your enquiries
  • online information including information posted on our websites and social media platforms, cookie and clickstream data (unless disabled by you)
  • other types of personal information as may be collected from time to time in connection with carrying out GSDC’s functions and activities.

GSDC may also collect a range of sensitive information about you, including your:

  • criminal records, for example as part of a WA national criminal history check
  • health information, for example health information collected under workers compensation and injury management processes
  • racial or ethnic origin, for example Indigenous background
  • religious beliefs or sexual orientation, for example, where volunteered by participants in GSDC’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs
  • other types of sensitive information as may be collected from time to time in connection with carrying out GSDC’s functions and activities.

Why GSDC collects and uses your personal information

GSDC collects and uses your personal information to perform its powers, functions and activities, including for the following purposes:

  • Administering its legislation (Regional Development Commissions Act 1993).
  • Conducting research to advance the State’s primary industries. We may collect personal data from farmers, fishers, and community members to facilitate participation in surveys, trials, or consultations.
  • Offering programs, grants or subsidies to support regional communities and industries. We may collect personal information to assess eligibility and provide assistance.
  • Engaging with the public through consultation, surveys, and feedback forms to inform policy and program development. We may collect personal information which allows us to facilitate further communications if necessary.
  • Providing training and accreditation for industry participants. We may collect personal details to assist us to manage registrations, certifications, and maintain training records.

Remaining anonymous

In certain circumstances, you may choose to remain anonymous when interacting with us unless we require some of your personal information for us to do our work. For example, we may require personal information to assess your eligibility for a grant.

Disclosure of your personal information

GSDC endeavours to not disclose personal information for purposes other than the primary purpose for which it was originally collected except in some specified circumstances such as:

  • Where you have consented to disclosure for a secondary purpose, different to the one which you had originally agreed to.
  • Where the secondary disclosure is authorised or required by law.
  • Where GSDC believes the secondary disclosure is necessary for such things as law enforcement activities or managing public safety.
  • To participate in, initiate, or respond to legal proceedings.
  • Where you would reasonably expect GSDC to use it for that secondary purpose, for example in emergency situations.

Disclosure of personal information overseas

GSDC does not ordinarily disclose personal information overseas. We will inform you before collecting your personal information if, at the time of collection, we intend to use that information for overseas-based services or activities.

How we hold and safeguard your personal information

GSDC holds personal information in a range of electronic, paper based and audio-visual records (including in cloud-based applications and services). We take reasonable steps to ensure the personal information we collect is held in a safe and secure manner to protect personal information from:

  • unauthorised access or disclosure;
  • changes;
  • misuse; and
  • loss and harm.

Personal information that we hold is managed securely through our record-keeping systems.  We ensure that we safeguard our IT systems against unauthorised access and physically secure our paper-based files in on-site locations.

GSDC complies with the WA Government Cyber Security Policy, related security standards, and risk management practices. Personal information is protected by an appropriate level of cyber security controls documented within GSDC’s Cyber Security Policy. We also ensure that we appropriately control staff access to personal information within our systems.

Retention and destruction

GSDC will comply with all legal requirements in relation to the retention and destruction of records containing personal information, including information management requirements in the State Records Act 2000 and the State Records Commission Standards.  When personal information is no longer required to be retained, we will delete or destroy it in accordance with the approved Retention and Disposal Authority and GSDC’s Recordkeeping Plan.

How to access and correct your personal information

You have a right to request access to personal information we hold about you, and if that personal information is not correct, you may request we correct it.

You may make a general privacy related enquiry, request access to and/or correction of your personal information or make a privacy complaint, in writing or via email to our Privacy Officer at the addresses below.

Privacy Officer – Great Southern Development Commission
110 Serpentine Road  ALBANY  WA  6330
Telephone: 08 9842 4888
Email: gsdc@gsdc.wa.gov.au

Website privacy statement

You can browse the general content of GSDC’s website without disclosing your personal information. However, some of the functionality of the site may require you to provide personal information.  Examples of this include where you wish to make an enquiry.  We may need to collect, use or disclose your personal information to allow us to answer your enquiry or process your transaction.

How we use cookies

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.