IMPORTANT LEGAL NOTICES
Accessibility
Australian Government departments and agencies are required
by the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 to ensure
that online information and services are accessible by
people with disabilities.
Our website has been redesigned to meet the Government
Online and National Office for the Information Economy
standards, including those that relate to access for people
with disabilities. The redesign work has drawn on the Web
Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium—see www.w3.org/WAI—and
incorporates all relevant priority 1 and 2 requirements.
If there is data that you require and it is in a format
you cannot access, or if you experience any other accessibility
difficulties, please advise us by emailing webhelp@ags.gov.au.
Copyright
© Australian Government Solicitor All rights reserved
[Unless otherwise indicated, material on this website
is copyright Australian Government Solicitor.]
Material contained on this website is copyright. You may
download, store in cache, display, print and copy this
material in unaltered form only (retaining this notice
or links to it where they appear) for your personal, non-commercial
use or use within your organisation. Apart from any use
as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, all other
rights are reserved. Requests for further authorisation
should be sent to webhelp@ags.gov.au.
Privacy
AGS recognises the
importance of protecting people’s privacy and their
personal information. The following sections outline the
obligations, policies and practices that AGS has in place
for the management and protection of the personal information
that it collects and holds.
About AGS
AGS provides legal and related services primarily to Australian
Government departments and agencies. We operate on a fully
commercial and competitive basis as a legal practice in
public ownership.
AGS is a statutory authority under the Judiciary Act
1903 and is prescribed as a government business enterprise
by regulation made under the Commonwealth Authorities
and Companies Act 1997.
About the Privacy Act
The Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act) imposes privacy obligations
in relation to personal information held in the records
of certain agencies and organisations. These obligations
relate to the collection, storage, access, use and disclosure
of personal information.
- ‘Personal information’ is information in
any form about an identifiable, living individual.
- ‘Record’ means a document or database (however
kept) or a photograph or other pictorial representation
of a person. It does not include a generally available
publication, library reference material or records accessible
through the National Archives of Australia.
AGS and the Privacy Act
By regulation made under subsection 7A(2) of the Privacy
Act, AGS is prescribed as an ‘organisation’ for
the purposes of the Act. This means that AGS is subject
to the National Privacy Principles (NPPs) which regulate
the way private sector organisations collect, use, keep
secure and disclose personal information.
AGS is also a contracted service provider (CSP) for the
purposes of the Privacy Act when it provides legal and
related services under contracts with Commonwealth agencies.
Under section 95B of the Act, Commonwealth agencies are required
to take contractual measures to ensure that CSPs (which
include sub-contractors) do not breach the Information
Privacy Principles (IPPs) which are the rules that govern
the way federal public sector agencies handle personal
information. In addition, CSPs are required to comply with
NPPs 7 to 10 and section 16F (information under Commonwealth
contract not to be used for direct marketing). This means
that AGS is obliged to follow the IPPs as well as the NPPs
with respect to personal information relating to the provision
of legal services to the Commonwealth.
(Detailed information on the NPPs and IPPs can be found
on the Privacy Commissioner’s website at Federal
Privacy Law).
In order to comply with its obligations under the Privacy
Act, AGS has a policy to handle all the personal information
that it collects, holds and uses, in accordance with the
IPPs and those NPPs which do not have an IPP equivalent.
In addition to the requirements under the Privacy Act,
our obligations to protect personal information arise from
other sources including the Commonwealth
Authorities and Companies Act 1997 and the Crimes
Act 1914. Also, our lawyers
are subject to professional obligations arising from Commonwealth,
state and territory law.
The sort of personal information that AGS collects and
its purpose
Broadly, AGS collects personal information in order to:
- provide professional legal and related services to
our clients
- manage our employees and contractors, including to
consider prospective employees
- receive services from suppliers
- advise our clients of the latest legal developments
- promote and market our activities to our clients.
The types of personal information that we hold will depend
on the nature of the legal matter we are conducting for
a client or the particular business activity or management
function being undertaken. This information includes (but
is not limited to) names, residential and work telephone
numbers, residential, work and email addresses, occupations,
employment histories, family backgrounds and financial
records.
Where an obligation under a contract of service requires
AGS to do so, we collect and hold some types of sensitive
information. Sensitive information is personal information
about an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, political
opinions, membership of a political association, religious
beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, membership
of a professional or trade association, membership of a
trade union, sexual preferences or practices, criminal
record or health information.
How AGS collects personal information
Our clients supply us with certain personal information
to enable us to provide them with legal or related services.
This information might relate to our clients’ employees
or to other persons associated with the particular legal
matter. Where it is reasonably practicable to do so, we
will collect this information directly from the employee
or person concerned.
On occasions, we may need to gather personal information
from other sources such as public records and third parties,
for example, reports from referees of prospective employees,
medical or other reports on claimants for compensation.
Depending on the circumstances, reasonable steps will be
taken to ensure that the individual is, or has been, made
aware of:
- our identity and how to contact us
- the fact that he or she can get access to the personal
information that is being gathered about him or her
- the purposes of the collection of that information
- with whom else we might share the information.
We will only collect sensitive information (for example
medical information) about an individual if:
- the individual has consented
- the law requires the collection
- the collection is necessary for the establishment,
exercise or defence of a legal or equitable claim, or
for a proper legal forensic purpose, or
- the collection is necessary to prevent or lessen a
serious and imminent threat to the life or health of
any person and the individual whom the information concerns
is incapable of consenting to the collection.
We understand that anonymity is an important element of
privacy. Unless there is a legal or practical reason or
a contractual obligation which requires identification,
individuals have the option of not identifying themselves
when entering business transactions with us.
We will record your email address if you send us a message.
If you would prefer that your personal details not be included
on our mailing lists for marketing purposes, please advise
us and we will comply with your request.
You should be aware that AGS mail server systems record
all incoming emails before they can be accessed by AGS
employees. These emails are screened by our email
security systems and, as part of that process, can be viewed
by authorised AGS information technology personnel.
More generally, you are reminded that email sent over
the internet is not secure, and could be intercepted without
your knowledge. AGS has other methods of receiving information
such as normal mail, fax, telephone and face-to-face. You
may prefer to use one of these methods.
How AGS uses and discloses personal information
We use and disclose personal information for the primary
purpose for which it was collected, namely to enable us
to carry out our business as a professional legal practice.
We may also use and disclose personal information for reasonably
expected secondary purposes directly related to the primary purpose
or for other purposes permitted under the Privacy Act.
The people or organisations with whom we might share personal
information include, but are not limited to:
- our clients (with respect to personal information
we have gathered in relation to a legal matter we are
undertaking for them)
- barristers and other individuals or organisations
who assist us in providing legal services
- courts, tribunals and regulatory authorities
- law enforcement agencies, where appropriate
- contractors or agents who provide services to us,
for example, off-site storage facilities for our files
and banks who transmit payments on our behalf.
We use personal information to promote and market our
legal and related services, such as legal seminars and
publications, to our clients and other interested parties.
We do not disclose personal information, for example mailing lists,
to third parties to allow them to direct market their services
and products.
On occasions, it might be necessary for us to send personal
information overseas, for example to a foreign based legal
firm with which we are collaborating on a legal matter.
We will not send the information outside Australia without
the person’s express or implied consent or otherwise
complying with NPP 9 (transborder data flows) or where
we are obliged to do so under a contract providing services
to a government or government-owned entity.
Access to personal information held by AGS
AGS will provide individuals with access to personal information
about them that AGS holds, subject to any applicable exceptions
under the Privacy Act. We will first require the individual
to be able to verify his or her identity and specify the information
he or she wishes to access.
Where we refuse access to the information being sought,
we will provide the individual concerned with reasons for
the refusal.
People will not be charged for lodging a request to access
personal information. We may, however, charge individuals
a fee to cover the reasonable administrative costs involved in
providing access to their personal information. The fee
will be determined on a case by case basis and the individual
will be informed beforehand of the likely cost.
Requests for access to personal information should, in
the first instance, be directed to our Corporate Secretary—details
provided at the end of this statement. AGS employees seeking
their employment details should initially do so
in accordance with our personnel procedures.
Accuracy and security of personal information held by AGS
We will endeavour to ensure that personal information
sought and held by AGS is relevant, accurate, complete
and up-to-date. If an individual is able to establish that
information
held by AGS about him or her is not correct, complete or
up-to-date we will take reasonable steps to amend it.
If we disagree with the individual’s view about
the accuracy, completeness or currency of the information,
we will provide reasons for our refusal to amend the information
and where requested, take reasonable steps to record a
statement on our files that he or she has a contrary view.
AGS uses a range of physical and electronic security measures
to protect personal information from misuse and loss and
from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. These
measures include but are not limited to restricted physical
access to our offices, security containers, firewalls,
secure databases, computer user identifiers and passwords.
Visiting our website
When you look at this website our server makes a record
of your visit and logs the following information:
- your server address
- your top level domain name (for example
.com, .gov, .au, .uk)
- the date and time of the visit to the site
- the pages accessed and documents downloaded
- the previous site visited
- the type of browser used.
The data listed above is collected to facilitate website
and system administration, including monitoring to prevent
security breaches and enhancement of the website to meet
users’ needs.
We will not attempt to identify users or their browsing
activities except in the unlikely event of a criminal investigation,
for example where a law enforcement agency has issued a
warrant to inspect our server’s logs.
We do not use cookies when people make general visits
to our website. Cookies are small text files
that may be transferred to your computer’s memory
by the servers of some of the websites you visit. Their
purpose is to track and store information about a visitor’s
usage of a website.
We do use cookies in relation to some of the specific
web pages we have established for particular clients to
allow them limited access to information on our intranet.
These cookies are used only during a browsing session and
expire when the visitor closes his or her browser.
External sites that are linked to or from the AGS website
are not under our control and you are advised to view their
privacy statements separately.
Complaints procedures
If you have a concern regarding the way in which we handle
your personal information and wish to make a complaint,
please contact our Corporate Secretary—details
provided at the end of this statement.
Under the Privacy Act, the Privacy Commissioner has the
power to investigate complaints or acts or practices that
may be a breach of privacy even if there is no complaint.
If you have made a complaint to AGS about an AGS practice
which you think amounts to an arbitrary or unreasonable
interference with your privacy and you do not believe that the
matter has been resolved satisfactorily, you should either
write to the Privacy Commissioner setting out the details
of the practices which you think interfere with your privacy,
or telephone the Privacy Hotline 1300 363 992 (local call
charge).
If you wish, you are able to make a complaint directly
to the Privacy Commissioner rather than to AGS. In most cases,
however, it is likely that the Office of the Privacy Commissioner
would refer you to AGS, in the first instance, to see if
your complaint can be resolved without requiring the involvement
of the Office.
Further information
To find out more about how AGS manages personal information,
please contact:
Norm Holcroft
Corporate Secretary
Australian Government Solicitor
T: 02 6253 7204 | F: 02 6253 7305
Email: Norm Holcroft
For more general information on the Privacy Act and the
IPPs and NPPs:
As necessary we will, from time to time, review and revise
this privacy policy statement. We reserve the right to
amend this policy at any time and any amendments will be
notified by posting an updated version on our website at http://www.ags.gov.au.
Disclaimer
While AGS has exercised due care in ensuring the accuracy
of the material contained on this website, the information
on the site is made available on the understanding that
AGS is not engaged in rendering professional advice here.
The website may not cover all the information available
on a particular issue.
Some material on this site may include or summarise views,
standards or recommendations of third parties. The inclusion
of such material is not an endorsement by AGS of that material;
nor does it indicate a commitment to any particular course
of action.
Before relying on the material contained on the website,
users should obtain appropriate professional advice relevant
to their particular circumstances to evaluate the material’s
accuracy, currency, completeness and relevance for their
purposes.
Links provided to other websites are provided for the
user’s convenience and do not constitute endorsement
of the information at those sites. AGS accepts no responsibility
for material contained in any website that is linked to
this site.
Contact us at webhelp@ags.gov.au should
you have any questions or issues about the above information.
No spam
The email addresses published on this page are provided
for the benefit of our clients and those wishing to contact
AGS on legitimate business. Accordingly, any unsolicited
commercial electronic messages we receive at any of the
published email addresses may be referred to the Australian
Communications and Media Authority for prosecution. Please
note that AGS does not generally provide legal services
or advice
to private individuals or organisations.
© Australian Government Solicitor
Print
this page
