The Suburban Rail Loop Authority (SRLA) is committed to protecting personal information provided by you in accordance with the principles of Victorian privacy laws and other applicable laws.

This Privacy Collection Statement explains how SRLA handles the information we receive about you when you engage with us, whether in person, over the telephone or online.

What we collect and for what purpose

SRLA collects personal information to deliver its functions under the Suburban Rail Loop Act 2021 (Vic) (SRL Act).

The functions of SRLA include planning, delivering, operating, and managing the operation of the Suburban Rail Loop and associated development.
SRLA may collect personal information to:

• carry out community engagement activities
• conduct market research and marketing activities (including promotions, competitions and the compilation of statistics)
• respond to public enquiries and requests for information
• manage its workforce and contractors (including prospective employees)
• respond to complaints or concerns
• to perform any other function set out in the SRL Act.

Please do not provide any sensitive information or health information in any information provided to SRLA, unless it has been requested. Ordinarily, we only collect your sensitive information or health information if you consent to the collection. However, in limited situations we do not need your consent, such as if the collection is required or authorised under law.

The terms ‘personal information’, ‘sensitive information’ and ‘health information’ and the use of the term ‘information’ for this Privacy Collection Statement are explained in the Commonly used words section below.

How we collect your personal information

Depending on the nature of your contact with SRLA, we may collect your personal information:

• over the telephone, online or in person as either solicited or unsolicited communications by you
• from application and registration forms, contests, complaints or surveys
• through employment and workplace-related processes
• from our website (see www.suburbanrailloop.vic.gov.au) or any websites we publish information on, including on the Victoria’s Big Build website (see www.bigbuild.vic.gov.au/projects/suburban-rail-loop) and the Engage Victoria website (see www.engage.vic.gov.au)
• through our contracted service providers, including our call centre operators and any third-party providers that SRLA may use from time to time
• where otherwise required by law.

Whenever we collect personal information for a purpose other than set out above, we will take reasonable steps to advise you of why we are collecting the information and what we intend to do with it.

We will also take reasonable steps to advise you of any consequences of not providing any personal information requested.

Sharing your personal information

Ordinarily, SRLA will only use or disclose your information for the purposes for which it was collected, and these will relate to SRLA functions under the SRL Act or where otherwise required or authorised by law.

For SRLA to perform its functions, we may need to use and disclose your personal information with our Board, employees, contractors, stakeholders, including Victorian government departments and agencies, other public sector organisations, Ministers and Cabinet Committees, and others who need access to it as part of their functions, duties or activities.

On occasion, SRLA may be permitted by law to use or disclose your information for purposes other than the purpose for which it was collected. Otherwise, we will only use or disclose your information in accordance with this statement with your consent.

We will take reasonable steps to preserve your privacy when disclosing your information, including where appropriate, de-identifying the information before we disclose it.

How we store and protect your personal information

We implement reasonable people, process and technology-based safeguards to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We also comply with the mandatory requirements of the Victorian Protective Data Security Standards in how we store and handle your information.

However, please be aware that there are risks in transmitting information across the internet. While we aim to protect such information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information that you transmit to us online, so individuals do so at their own risk. Once any personal information comes into our possession, we will take reasonable steps to protect that information from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure.

Our contractors may collect your personal information as part of providing services to SRLA and are also required to protect your information in accordance with privacy laws and to the same standards as SRLA.

Anonymity

We respect your choice to remain anonymous, and you may interact with us anonymously where it is lawful and practicable for you to do so. However, sometimes, it may not be possible for us to provide information, deal with a complaint or perform other functions unless we can identify you.

Our online forms set out the information we need from you. In some instances, our forms will have mandatory fields and you will not be able to submit your form without providing all the relevant information. However, in most instances, you will be able to proceed without filling in the entire form.

Our forms also indicate whether you can interact with us anonymously. If so, you will be able to get a copy of the form by emailing the contact listed below to request it in hardcopy and we will let you know where to forward it to.

If we collect an email or response you provide as a registered user of any platform, we may be able to identify you from your email address or your username.

Access to your information

Privacy complaints

If you are unhappy about the way we handle your personal information, please contact us immediately:

Phone: 1800 105 105 (our 24-hour, 7-day call centre)

Email: privacy@srla.vic.gov.au

Post: Governance and General Counsel branch, Suburban Rail Loop Authority, PO Box 24214 Melbourne VIC 3001

If you are not satisfied with how SRLA handles your complaint, you may contact:

• in relation to personal information – the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner (OVIC) at www.ovic.vic.gov.au or call 1300 006 842
• in relation to health information – the Office of the Health Complaints Commissioner at www.hcc.vic.gov.au or call 1300 582 113.

Commonly used words

In this Privacy Collection Statement:

‘contractors’ means third party individuals or companies who provide goods or services to SRLA, including SRLA’s construction contractors.

‘handle’ or ‘handling’ means to collect, store, use and/or disclose information.

‘health information’ means identifying personal information about an individual with the meaning given in section 3 of the HR Act as “health information”.

It includes information or an opinion about:

• the physical or mental health, or disability, of an individual
• an individual's expressed wishes about the future provision of health services to him or her
• the nature of health services that have been, or are to be, provided to an individual.

It also includes:

• other personal information originally collected in the course of providing a health service to an individual
• personal information collected in connection with the donation of human tissue by an individual
• genetic information that is or could be predictive of the health of an individual or their descendants.

‘information’ means all the classes of personal information or health information unless we say otherwise.

‘personal information’ has the meaning given in section 3 of the PDP Act as “information or an opinion (including information or an opinion forming part of a database), that is recorded in any form and whether true or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion”. It includes a broad range of information, or an opinion, that could identify an individual, such as the individual's photograph, name, address, phone number or date of birth.

‘privacy laws’ means the:

• Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) (PDP Act) and the Information Privacy Principles (IPPs)
• Health Records Act 2001 (Vic) (HR Act) and the Health Privacy Principles (HPPs); and
• The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) as it applies when handling a Tax File Number.

‘sensitive information’ is defined in Schedule 1 of the IPPs and means personal information about an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions or membership of a political association, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, membership of a professional trade union or trade association, sexual preferences or practices, or criminal record.

‘us’, ‘our’ or ‘we’ means the Suburban Rail Loop Authority (SRLA).

‘you’ or ‘your’ means you or a reference to you, as an individual.

Version date

This Privacy Collection Statement was last updated 20 April 2023.