Your right to privacy
Personal information collected from you by government departments and agencies such as Centrelink and other contracted service providers, may be exchanged to enable payments and services to be provided to you. Some of this information such as your name, address, date of birth, education, employment history and other relevant employment-related information will be given to your Job Network member. By providing this information your Job Network member is better able to find you suitable employment.
Centrelink is an agency of the government that delivers payments and services to customers under formal agreements with federal government departments including: Department of Employment and Workplace Relations; Department of Family and Community Services; Department of Education, Science and Training; and Department of Health and Ageing.
Job Network is a national network of private and community organisations dedicated to finding jobs for unemployed people. Job Network members are funded by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.
Who are other contracted service providers?
Other service providers may include: Job Capacity Assessors; Community Work Coordinators; the Disability Employment Network; the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Service. Their role is to provide specialist help to overcome barriers to employment or provide services additional to those offered by the Job Network.
Your right to privacy
You are protected by the Privacy Act 1988. The Privacy Act gives you a number of rights including:
- you have the right to be told why your personal information is being collected and whether it can be given to anyone else
- you have the right to know the legal authority for the collection of your information
- you have the right to see what information is held about you and have it corrected if it is incorrect or out of date (the Freedom of Information Act also covers this)
- you have the right to have your personal information stored securely and protected from unauthorised access or misuse
- you have the right to know how your personal information will be used.
Information is also collected and protected under the authority of other acts. The most common one is the Social Security (Administration) Act 1999. The authority for the collection and protection of your information depends on the payment you are claiming or the service you are applying for.
Your right to privacy fact sheet (PDF 73KB)
Information sharing between organisations
Information that has been collected by one organisation is usually passed to another when they are providing payments or services to you. For example, Centrelink will pass information to a Job Network member to allow the Job Network member to deliver appropriate and effective services to you. Similarly, a Job Network member may pass information to Centrelink about employment you have commenced or another change of circumstance that could affect your eligibility for or rate of payment.
Barriers to employment such as health issues, illiteracy or homelessness may be shared between organisations to enable appropriate services to be provided to you. The information shared must be relevant to the provision of your payment or service.
The sharing of information promotes the delivery of services in a prompt, fair and cost efficient manner so you do not have to repeat all your information to different organisations.
Limits to sharing or use of information
Information that does not assist another organisation provide correct payments or services cannot be shared. Some examples of information that cannot be shared include:
- racial or religious information
- sexual preferences
- membership of any legal organisation or opinions on politics
- gossip or personal opinions.
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