Privacy Policy

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Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Your privacy is important to us. Sunwater Limited (ACN 131 034 985) and its subsidiaries (together, ‘us’, ‘we’, ‘our’) are committed to protecting your privacy and complying with the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act). The purpose of this policy is to explain how we may collect and use personal information in connection with the operation of our business.

We may modify or update this policy from time to time by publishing it on our website. We encourage you to check the Sunwater website periodically to ensure that you are aware of our current Privacy Policy.

2. What personal information does Sunwater collect?

The personal information that we collect about you may include (but is not limited to):

  • your name;
  • email address, location and other contact details (including phone number);
  • date of birth;
  • information regarding your water usage or account with Sunwater;
  • other information related to your dealings with us, which may include:
    • personal information collected in relation to a transfer of a water allocation (which may include collection of government issued documents such as marriage certificates where relevant in connection with a transfer of allocation); and
    • information collected from contractors or third parties who provide services to Sunwater, for example information required in connection with background checks or qualification checks (which may include drivers licences).

We will also collect personal information in connection with specific circumstances, as set out in section 5.

If you do not want to provide us with certain personal information, or would like to deal with us anonymously, personal information does not have to be disclosed to us. However, in these circumstances, we may not be able to provide services, information or other arrangements to you (or the organisation you work for) that are required from us.

3. How we collect personal information

Where reasonably possible, we will only collect personal information directly from you. This will ordinarily be when you:

  • use or register for our website or online services, including when registering for Sunwater Online or through the use of the Sunwater Customer App;
  • complete a form (including submitting a query via the ‘contact us’ page on our website) or a survey;
  • engage with us via a third party website or social media channel; and/or
  • contact us (including in writing, electronically or via telephone) or otherwise directly engage with us (for example, by submitting a Right to Information application, engaging with our sponsorship opportunities or entering a competition run by us).

When you contact us by telephone, we may record the call for the purposes of quality assurance and training. You will be informed that the call is being recorded and can request that the conversation not be recorded if you would not like it recorded.

4. How we use and disclose personal information

The personal information you provide to Sunwater may be used:

  • in accordance with your written consent
  • for a number of purposes connected with our business operations, which include (without limitation), the following:
    • providing you with services related to your water allocation and usage (including transferring water allocations);
    • identifying you to assist with the use of and subscription to our website services (including Sunwater Online and the Sunwater Customer App);
    • processing your orders or applications;
    • dealing with requests, enquiries, requests for information or complaints and other customer care related activities;
    • helping Sunwater to better understand your needs;
    • publishing available water allocations available for sale;
    • performing internal operations, including managing our contractors;
    • maintaining our records and internal reports, including the fulfilment of any legal requirements;
    • analysing our services and business needs with a view to developing new or improved services and business practices;
    • ensuring safety and compliance with our reporting systems, including complying with all legislative and regulatory requirements; and/or
    • as we are permitted or required by law.

We may disclose or receive personal information about you to/from the following parties:

  • law enforcement agencies to assist in the prevention of criminal activities;
  • government agencies responsible for compliance matters or the investigation or resolution of disputes or complaints concerning use of our services;
  • emergency services and other entities such as disaster management groups who provide assistance during an emergency event;
  • our employees, suppliers, service providers, contractors, professional advisors, dealers, agents and related companies for purposes that are related to providing you with a service that would be reasonably expected;
  • anyone to whom our assets or business (or any part of it) is transferred or offered to be transferred; and
  • as otherwise permitted or required by law.

We will not sell, rent or trade your personal information.

5. Collection and use of personal information in particular circumstances

In addition to the above, Sunwater may collect, use and disclose personal information in the following specific circumstances.

Hardship

If you are experiencing hardship, we may collect additional information about your financial circumstances. This information is collected from you in order to assess your financial circumstances and determine how we can best assist you. In some circumstances the personal information collected from you may include sensitive information, such as information relating to your health and wellbeing. This will only be collected from you with your consent and where it is relevant to assessing your financial circumstances.

Additional personal information that may be collected by us to assist you with your hardship includes:

  • employment status and income;
  • details of insurances held by you which are responsive to your hardship;
  • assets and liabilities;
  • information relating to your health conditions and/or disability;
  • marriage and death certificates where relevant to your financial circumstances; and
  • information on your financial circumstances including financial statements and evidence of impact of hardship (this may include a statutory declaration from you, about your financial circumstances).

Landowner and occupier information

We may collect personal information about you if you are a landowner or occupier located near our infrastructure. This information is collected to enable us to contact you for the purpose of our business (for example, to gain access to property) and where required in accordance with our Emergency Action Plans.

Information relating to employees, contractors and job applicants

When you apply for a job or contract with us, we may collect certain personal information from third parties, rather than directly from you (for example, we might collect personal information from a recruitment consultant or from your previous employers).

The information that we collect may include sensitive information, such as your medical information where this is related to a work-related injury or other work, health and safety matters, or is otherwise relevant to your application. We will only collect this information with your consent, and directly from you or from your medical practitioners, specialists, allied health professionals and/or rehabilitation providers.

The information that we collect may also include government related identifiers. These identifiers will be collected directly from you, either by us or from our third party background check partner. We will only collect government related identifiers which are necessary for your employment or engagement by Sunwater and will only use these identifiers for the purpose of your employment or engagement with us or as otherwise authorised or required by law. We will not adopt government related identifiers for internal use at Sunwater.

Personal information that we collect in relation to employees, contractors and job applicants includes:

  • your date and place of birth;
  • your reference and background check information (including verification of your identity, your eligibility to work in Australia and if required, your visa and/or passport details and police checks and/or financial crime related checks);
  • bank details, superannuation details and financial information;
  • emergency contact information;
  • a description of your gender and sexual orientation;
  • whether you identify as an Aboriginal, Australian South Sea Islander or Torres Strait Islander person;
  • whether you have a language other than English as your first language and/or used in your home;
  • whether you are part of the Defence Force and/or a veteran;
  • psychometric test results (including identification of strengths) collected through the application process;
  • information relating to any relevant medical condition including through pre-employment medical checks;
  • whether you have a disability and if so details of that disability;
  • if you have been involved in a workplace accident, details of your workplace injury;
  • your occupation and qualifications (including your education and/or work history and professional memberships or qualifications);
  • Tax File Numbers;
  • documents which are necessary to identify you and/or assess your right to live and work in Australia, such as your driver’s licence, passport, visa or Medicare number; and
  • details of accreditations which are relevant to your employment or engagement with Sunwater, such as your White Card qualification.

This information may be used to assess your suitability for employment, or to be otherwise engaged by us. Certain information is only collected for the purpose of internal equality and diversity monitoring and/or to assist Sunwater in making reasonable adjustments for employees as required. Sensitive personal information will only be collected with consent.

If you are seeking employment with us and do not want to disclose your personal information to us, or want to deal with us anonymously, you may do this, however we may not be able to process your application.

Information from public sources

Sunwater may collect information which is posted by you on its social media channels for the purpose of the ongoing operation of its business.

6. Cookies and IP address tracking

We may collect other information about you when you interact with our website, such as your Internet Protocol address, browsing patterns, click stream data, HTTP protocol elements, and the status of cookies.

Cookies are small packets of information that are stored by your web browser. They are put on your web browser by the websites that you visit. These packets do not contain personal information, but they do allow us to know if you visit the same website twice or if you visit related websites.

We send cookies when you:

  • view pages on our website;
  • send a request to Sunwater; or
  • register yourself on our website for certain services.

Most browsers automatically accept cookies by default, but you can refuse cookies or selectively adjust your preferences in your browser. If you switch off cookies, there could be features of our website that may not be available to you.

7. Overseas disclosure of personal information

We may disclose your personal information to recipients outside of Australia. Such recipients are likely to be located in New Zealand, Canada, India, Singapore, the United Kingdom or the United States of America.

Before we disclose any personal information overseas (including through software and cloud-based solutions), we will take steps as are reasonable to ensure that the overseas recipient does not breach the Australian Privacy Principles in relation to your personal information.

8. How we handle e-mail correspondence and feedback

As a Government Owned Corporation, email correspondences sent to us (including through forms on our website) will be treated as a public record and will be retained as required by the Public Records Act 2002 (Qld) and any other relevant law.

Your name and address details will not be added to a mailing list, nor will we disclose these details to a third party without your consent unless required by law. However, email messages may be monitored by our website support staff to assist with troubleshooting our systems and other maintenance purposes.

9. Security

We are committed to protecting the personal information you provide to us. We store all personal information collected by us in a secure environment. We take all reasonable steps to protect the personal information that we hold from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We have physical and electronic security systems, and we limit who can access your personal information.

Please note, however, that the internet is not a secure environment and although care is taken, we cannot guarantee the security of information provided to us via electronic means.

10. How you can access and correct your personal information

Under the Privacy Act you have a right to access, or request that we correct, the personal information that we hold about you.

We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we collect, use or disclose about you is accurate, complete, relevant, not misleading and up-to-date. In order to do so, you should ensure that you promptly advise us:

  • if there is any change to any of the details you have provided to us; or
  • if it comes to your attention that we possess certain information about you that is not correct, accurate, complete, up-to-date or relevant, so that we can continue to provide you with the services we have agreed to provide.

If you wish to access or update your personal information, please contact our Privacy Contact Officer on the details set out below. We may deny your request in some circumstances. If we do this, we will tell you why. If an individual requests us to provide them with access to personal information that we hold about them, we will provide such information within a reasonable time. We will generally respond to a request for access within a reasonable time of receiving your request. We may require proof of your identity before permitting access to or changing records relating to you.

There is no charge for requesting access to, or correction of, personal information.

If we cannot provide you with access to your personal information, or cannot make a requested correction to the personal information, we will provide you with a written notice of our reasons for refusal.

Please note that you may also make an application for access to or amendment of your personal information under the Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld). See the Office of the Information Commissioner website for further information:

https://www.oic.qld.gov.au

11. Complaints

If you wish to make a complaint about the way we have handled your personal information (including if you think we have breached the Privacy Act you may do so to our Privacy Contact Officer in writing, by mail or email to the address or email address set out at the end of this policy. When you contact us, please include your email address, name, address and telephone number and clearly describe your complaint. Our Privacy Contact Officer will investigate the complaint and respond to you promptly. If you consider that we have failed to resolve the complaint satisfactorily, you can make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, through their website: https://www.oic.qld.gov.au

12. Contact details

If you have further queries or would like more information about our privacy and security practices, please contact our Privacy Contact Officer during our business hours of 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday:

Privacy Contact Officer
Sunwater Information Services
Level 9, St Paul’s Terrace
Fortitude Valley Queensland 4006
PO Box 15536
City East Queensland 4002
Australia

Phone: +61 7 3120 0000

E-mail: IMPrivacyRequests@Sunwater.com.au

Please note that our website provides links to external websites. However, we do not control these sites or the privacy practices of their operators. The privacy policies applicable to such sites may differ substantially from this policy and we advise individuals to read those privacy policies before using those websites.