Privacy Policy

Protecting your privacy

Manufacturing Industry Skills Alliance Ltd (ABN 74 109 600 302) (Manufacturing Alliance or we/us) is committed to protecting your privacy. In accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), this policy outlines how we manage privacy protection of your personal information.

For the purposes of this policy, “Manufacturing Alliance” includes any subsidiaries of Manufacturing Alliance.

This policy applies to all personal information collected, held or used by the Manufacturing Alliance or by contractors, suppliers, and service providers to the extent that they collect, hold or use personal information in relation to their engagement by, performance of work for, or provision of services to the Manufacturing Alliance.

You consent to us collecting, holding, using and disclosing your personal information in accordance with this policy.

What is personal information?

Personal information is any information or an opinion about an identified individual or an individual who can be reasonably identified from the information or opinion. Information or an opinion may be personal information regardless of whether it is true.

What personal information do we collect and why do we need it?

We collect personal information to enable us to fulfil our responsibilities in running our operations. We sometimes need to collect contact information and other personal information from:

  • Directors, employees and potential directors and employees of the Manufacturing Alliance

  • Members of the Strategic Industry Taskforce and its associated sub-committees

  • Clients, colleagues, or other stakeholders who have elected to be included on our mailing list

  • Participants in the surveys, workshops, and events that we organise

  • Visitors to our website who provide feedback

  • Sub-contractors and suppliers who provide us with goods and services.

The kinds of personal information that we collect and hold about you, and the purposes for which we may use your information, will depend on the circumstances of collection. For example, we use client information to provide services. We use supplier information to initiate and facilitate transactions and reconcile accounts. We use member and stakeholder information to communicate with them about our activities and comply with our legal obligations. We use information concerning potential employees to assess their applications for employment.

In general, the type of personal information we collect, hold, use and disclose includes names, addresses, contact details, occupations and other information which assists us in conducting our business, providing and promoting our services and products, and meeting our legal obligations. With suppliers and sub-contractors, additional personal information may include bank account details and company information to ensure the legitimacy of the organisation and enable payment to be made for the goods or services provided.

We will not use your information for direct marketing purposes nor will we disclose your information to third parties for direct marketing purposes. We may use your information for any other purposes required or authorised by or under law, including purposes for which you have provided your consent. That consent may be written, verbal or implied from your conduct.

If we do not collect your personal information, we may not be able to provide you with the services or assistance you have requested or do business with you or the organisation with which you are connected.

We also collect certain technical information each time a person visits our website. Unless we suspect misuse of the website or illegal activity, this information is kept in a de-identified form and is not traceable to any individual.

In some circumstances, we may collect personal information that is considered sensitive information under the Privacy Act. That may include information about race or ethnicity, political opinions, membership of a political association, trade association or union, religious or philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation, criminal records, health information or biometric data (Sensitive Information). We will only collect your Sensitive Information when we have your express consent to do so and where it is necessary for a purpose which we have made clear to you when collecting that information. We will only use it for the purpose for which it was provided.

How do we collect the personal information?

We collect the information in person, in writing, by telephone, through our website and by other electronic communication channels. We collect this information through our staff and through our contracted agents. Wherever reasonable and practicable, we will ask you for the information directly. However, we may need to collect information from others such as employers, business associates, bankers, credit reference agencies and referees. We will take reasonable steps to notify you if this is the case.

If you provide us with personal information about another person, please make sure that you tell them about this Privacy Policy.

Who will see or have access to your personal information?

The programs that we run are funded by the Commonwealth Government through the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR). As a condition of that funding, we are obliged to disclose information we hold to DEWR. You consent to our disclosure of your personal information to DEWR and acknowledge that any personal information disclosed to DEWR will be collected, stored and used by DEWR in accordance with the DEWR privacy policy (accessible at:

https://www.dewr.gov.au/about-department/resources/dewr-privacy-policy).

In addition, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the DEWR privacy policy or elsewhere in this privacy policy, you acknowledge that DEWR may:

  • Publicly disclose personal information relating to our contractors and their sub-contractors;

  • Disclose personal information we hold as part of a response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth); and

  • Disclose personal information in accordance with Commonwealth public accountability processes (including, without limitation, via a disclosure to the Australian National Audit Office, the Commonwealth Ombudsman or a royal commission) and reporting requirements;

  • Disclose personal information to a Minister of the Australian Government or a House or committee of the Commonwealth Parliament.

DEWR may also require us to collect and disclose to them Sensitive Information. We may only disclose Sensitive Information to DEWR where that disclosure is reasonably necessary for, or directly related to, one or more of DEWR’s functions or activities. Accordingly, if DEWR requires us to disclose Sensitive Information to them, we will inform you that your Sensitive Information will be disclosed to DEWR and inform you of the purpose for which DEWR has demanded its disclosure. Following disclosure, in common with other personal information disclosed to DEWR, your Sensitive Information will be held by DEWR in accordance with the DEWR privacy policy.

Except as specifically provided above, unless we are required to provide your personal information to others by law, by court order or to investigate suspected fraud or other unlawful activity, your information will generally only be seen or used by persons working in or for the Manufacturing Alliance. These people will include our staff and contracted agents and service providers engaged to help us carry out our operations. Access to personal information is allowed only by those with authority and who have been set up with the relevant electronic security permissions for that information.

We may disclose your personal information to third parties for purposes authorised by or under law (including, without limitation as part of a response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth)), and we may disclose your personal information for purposes for which you have provided your consent. That consent may be written, verbal or may be reasonably inferred from your conduct or the circumstances in which you provided us with your information.

Where you have requested services from us that necessarily involve a third-party contractor, such as a delivery contractor, you acknowledge that we will provide your information to the relevant third party and that third-party may hold and use your information in accordance with its own privacy policy.

DEWR has the authority to re-allocate responsibility for particular industry sectors between Jobs and Skills Councils. If an industry sector for which we are responsible is reallocated to a different Jobs and Skills Council then, if you are involved in that industry sector, and provided your personal information to us in relation to your involvement in that industry sector, you consent to our provision of your personal information to the Jobs and Skills Council which is allocated that industry sector.

How do we hold your personal information?

We may store your information in hardcopy and/or in electronic form. We take reasonable and prudent steps consistent with good industry practice to protect the personal information we hold from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We have appropriate systems and processes in place to keep our information systems and files secure from unauthorised access and our staff and contracted agents and service providers have been informed of the importance we place on protecting your privacy and their role in helping us to do so.

Where personal information we hold is stored on servers belonging to our contracted service providers we will ensure that those servers are located in Australia and are subject to security standards at least equivalent to those applied to our own systems. If we do need to transfer your personal information outside Australia, we will use our best endeavours to inform you beforehand and will ensure that the security of the systems on which it is stored is at least equivalent to the security of our systems in Australia.

In the event of any unauthorised access to the data we hold we will, in responding, follow good industry practice, including complying with our obligations at law in relation to the notification of any data breach and co-ordinating our response with any other affected parties including DEWR.

Collection of information via our website

On our website we provide a form for visitors to provide their information if they wish to contact us and, on occasion, we may collect information in relation to promotional competitions and similar activities. We do not otherwise routinely collect personal information via our website. Like most companies, our website does use “cookie” technology. When you visit our website a small packet of files, known as cookies, are written to your hard drive. We may use tools, such as Google Analytics. We may use cookies and data from analytics tools to log information about the use of our website. The type of information logged may include technical information, such as the type of browser, language, device and operating system used, and the date and time of the visit. We may also log the site from which you came to our site, the documents downloaded, the pages visited and the subsequent site visited.

Neither cookies nor the analytical tools used are able to read information from your hard drive. Although these tools do not personally identify website users, they may identify a user’s Internet Service Provider (ISP). You can configure your browser to reject some or all cookies, to notify you when a cookie is sent or to limit the information available to analytics tools. Please refer to your browser instructions to learn more about those functions. We may use persistent cookies (which remain on your computer even after you close your browser) to store information that may speed up your use of our website for any of your future visits. We may also use session cookies (which no longer remain after you end your Browse session) to help manage the display and presentation of information on the website. Please note that if you do configure your browser to reject our cookies, you may not be able to use the full functionality of the website.

What if you want to check or correct the personal information we hold about you?

Subject to some exceptions permitted by law, we will provide you with access to the personal information we hold about you if you request it in writing. Generally, there is no charge for accessing your information, but if your request is particularly complex or requires detailed searching of our records, we may require that you pay our reasonable costs of providing access (such as photocopying costs or costs for time spent on collating large amounts of material).

Any request for access should be made via the contact details provided below.

If you believe there are errors in our records about you, please let us know (using the detail below) and we will investigate and take reasonable steps to correct any inaccuracies.

Further information and complaints

If you would like further information on our privacy policy, if you have any concerns over the protection of the information you have given to us or that we have collected from others, or if you have a complaint about the way we have handled a privacy issue, please contact our Privacy Officer:

Address: Privacy Officer, Manufacturing Industry Skills Alliance, PO Box 4111, Richmond East VIC 3121

Email: privacy@manufacturingalliance.org.au

Phone: (03) 9815 7000

We will investigate any complaint and respond to you in writing. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact us to discuss your concerns further or contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) (www.oaic.gov.au) for guidance on alternative courses of action which may be available.

Changes to this policy

From time to time, we may change our policy on how we handle personal information or the types of personal information which we hold. Any changes to our policy will be published on our website. You may obtain a copy of our current policy from our website or by contacting us at the contact details above.

Approval Details

Policy Sponsor Chief Executive Officer
Approval Authority Manufacturing Industry Skills Alliance Board
Review Date Two years