Privacy and RTI

Privacy

We take your privacy very seriously and will treat your information with respect.

We collect personal information about individuals so that we can provide services to the community and carry out our functions and responsibilities. These cover a wide range of activities, from childcare and immunisation to providing kerbside waste bins, assessing planning or building applications and responding to concerns about public health, safety and nuisance.

The Council only collects the personal information we need to perform our functions. Any information about you that is sensitive (for instance, health information or information/opinion about an individual’s ethnicity, religious beliefs, criminal record, membership of a political association, etc.) is only collected with your (or your representative’s) consent unless the law permits otherwise.

Much of the personal information we hold about you will be collected directly from you, but sometimes we also collect personal information from other sources, such as government agencies, contractors, etc. where this is allowed by law.

You can choose to remain anonymous, unless we are authorised by law to collect identifying information. However we might not be able to provide some services to you if you don’t provide all the information we ask for, or may not be able to provide them to the level you would like. In some circumstances, declining to provide information requested may have legal consequences.

View the Council’s Privacy Policy.

Except where the law allows, your personal information will be only used for the purpose it was collected for or for a related purpose that you would reasonably expect it to be used for unless we have your agreement to use it for another purpose.

We will only disclose to Council contractors, service providers or other organisations the information needed for them to perform Council functions or provide services to the Council unless you have agreed that we can share more of your information or if the law permits us to. Even if the law permits us to share the information, we will make good efforts to limit the disclosure of personal information to only what is necessary.

We endeavour to take all reasonable steps to keep your information secure. We have secure storage (electronic and hardware) and our staff are trained to respect your privacy and keep your personal information confidential. We take added precautions to protect sensitive information.

The Council retains personal information only for as long as necessary to achieve the purpose for which the information was collected or to comply with other laws. We use only secure means to dispose of personal information.

You have the right to request access to the personal information we hold about you. You can do this in person, in writing or by telephone (see our contact details below). You also have the right to request the Council to amend your personal information. Requests to amend information must be submitted in writing, addressed to the Privacy Officer.

Find out more about the process to request access or amendment to your personal information.

If you have a concern or complaint about the handling of personal information by Council aldermen, staff or contractors, you can contact the Council at any time and request that we investigate the matter. You can find out more about the complaints process.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of a Council investigation, you can request a formal General Manager Review, or contact the Tasmanian Ombudsman (phone 1300 766 725).

You are also welcome to contact us with any queries or complaints:

The Privacy Officer

Glenorchy City Council

PO Box 103

Glenorchy Tas 7010

Email: gccmail@gcc.tas.gov.au

Phone: (03) 6216 6800

 

Right to Information

The Right to Information Act gives you the right to ask for information about our operations.

We provide most information about our operations on this website. This includes things like information sheets, by-laws, the minutes of Council meetings and our Annual Report.

We also regularly publish information in the Glenorchy Gazette, which can be accessed online or at our offices.

If you can’t find the information that you are looking for, please get in touch.

Some of our information is not routinely made public.

If you are looking for information that is not available publicly, you can apply for it. We will conduct an assessment of the information requested and, where permitted by legislation, will release that information to the applicant. These applications are called ‘Applications for Assessed Disclosure’. 

To make an application, you can complete our  Right to Information Form (PDF). You can submit your completed form in-person or by sending an email to gccmail@gcc.tas.gov.au attaching the completed form. You can also send it by post to:

Right to Information Officer

Glenorchy City Council

PO Box 103

Glenorchy TAS 7010

There is a fee that needs to be paid when you submit your form. If you submit your form by email or post, one of our Customer Service staff will contact you to arrange for payment of the fee. 

You can ask to waive the fee if:

  • you are ‘impecunious’, which means you can’t afford the fee. An example of this might be if you can show that you are receiving income support payments
  • you can show that you intend to use the information for a purpose that is of general public interest/benefit. 

Our Right to Information Form has more information about application fees.

If your application contains all the required information, our Right to Information Officer will assess it against the RTI Act.

We will advise you in writing of the outcome of the assessment process within the following timeframes:

  • 20 working days for an ordinary application 
  • 40 working days where we need to consult a third party.

If your application will take more than 20 working days to assess, either because we are consulting with a third party or because it is for a complex or large amount of information, we will notify you in writing and provide a revised date.

Our Right to Information Officer may contact you during the process to update you on progress or request that you provide more details of the information you are seeking

If we find that we are unable to provide all or some of the information you have asked us for, we will:

  • notify you of the refusal
  • provide written reasons for refusing to provide the information
  • provide you with details of your right to seek a review of our decision.

You can request a review in the same way that you made your initial application (in-person, by email or by the post.)

If you are not satisfied with our review, you can apply to the Office of the Ombudsman for a further review.

Details about when and how to apply for a review by the Ombudsman can be found on the Office of the Ombudsman’s website.

The Ombudsman’s Office also publishes a Right to Information Manual which contains detailed information about the right to information process in Tasmania.