Privacy

AVCAT's Privacy Statement
AVCAT is committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of our applicants, recipients and supporters.

We only collect personal information that is necessary for our work. We never disclose the personal information of our applicants, their parents, our recipients or our supporters to third parties, unless they are working directly on our behalf or we are required to do so by law. Nor do we publish personal information in publications or on our web-site, without explicit/express consent, unless required by law. We never sell, rent, lend or give away applicant and supporter lists.

AVCAT also actively seeks to ensure that all personal information we collect is protected from misuse, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

Privacy of Recipients

Protecting the privacy and confidentiality of the Australians we help is essential in preserving dignity and providing respectful assistance. As a condition of applying, applicants and recipients agree that AVCAT may make any enquiries it needs to determine an application or make a payment. We do this in order to provide the best possible assistance:

To assess if applicants meet AVCAT entry and eligibility criteria for specific schemes.
To confirm that recipients are entitled to receive further payments under the scheme which is providing assistance to them.
For internal reporting purposes
To continuously develop and improve the range of assistance offered
To assess the effectiveness of programs
To assess the nature of need in the community
To plan our future programs.

Personal and sensitive information to be used for AVCAT's research purposes is always de-identified prior to analysis and individual applicants and recipients cannot be identified from any research analysis or report.

Access
Staff and volunteers involved in the assessment of applications are required to sign an Undertaking to Preserve Official Secrets, for their work on the Long Tan Bursary and that undertaking also applies to other applications.

Selection for AVCAT's bursaries and scholarships is competitive and the number available is limited. There is no appeal from the selection decisions of the Education Committee and the bursary or scholarship donor. The selection processes and the information on which decisions are made, are confidential and for this reason applicants are not given access to personal information on them, or about their application. See also retention to follow.

Retention
As recipient files also record payments, past recipient files are retained for seven years as accounting records and kept later for research purposes. Information from recipient files may be made available to them, at AVCAT's discretion.

Custody
Information provided by recipients is kept in filing cabinets in an area and a building with access controlled by Commonwealth Protective Services Officers.

Recipient files contain information of a personal nature on academic progress, personal finances, health and other matters. As such the files are treated in confidence, in the same way as applicant files.

Protection of personal information
AVCAT also actively seeks to ensure that all personal information we collect is protected from misuse, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

More information
If applicants or recipients have complaints about the handling of their personal information, they should call the AVCAT Privacy Officer, Anne West on 02 9281 7077 or emailing her at vvt@accsoft.com.au. The Board of AVCAT has directed that all such complaints are to be fully investigated and corrective action taken if necessary.

For information about privacy legislation and AVCAT's requirements, see Regulatory Requirements