Notification of the collection of personal information

Personal information (including sensitive information) that you provide to the agency is protected by the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act). The Privacy Act provides for 13 Australian Privacy Principles that regulate how the agency must handle your personal information.

You are not required to identify yourself, or you may decide to use a pseudonym when dealing with us. However, please be aware that in certain circumstances it may not be practicable or reasonable for us to deal with you if your identity is unknown.

Why we collect your personal information

We collect personal information from you to perform or exercise our functions and powers under the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975 and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Regulations 1983.

The agency is undertaking public consultation on the proposed amendments to the Whitsundays Plan of Management.

The consultation aims to obtain feedback on the proposed amendments, which will be taken into account by the agency prior to finalising the amending instruments.

If you choose to make a submission to the agency about the proposed amendments to the Whitsundays Plan of Management and the consequential amendments to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Regulations 1983, you may include your personal information in that submission.

Any submission containing your personal information will be used by the agency as part of the public consultation process for the purposes of:

• Informing the agency’s assessment of possible impacts to business, community and individuals of the proposed amendments. 
• Identifying any other amendments that would contribute to the intent to review the Whitsundays Plan of Management.

We may also use your personal information to contact you to discuss your submission.

By choosing to provide any sensitive information to us, such as details of your racial or ethnic origin, you are expressly consenting to the agency collecting this information from you.

If the agency is unable to collect your personal information your submission will still be considered by the agency. However, the agency’s assessment of impacts may not be as transparent and we will be unable to contact you to seek clarification if necessary.  

Who do we give your personal information to?

Any submissions provided to us via the online submission will be disclosed to our external consultant, yellowSquares, who will be assisting us with the collection of data. Our consultant is required to comply with Australian privacy laws and our consultant will not disclose your personal information to any third parties without your consent. For more information please refer to yellowSquare's privacy policy and privacy statement.

We may publicly release de-identified information about public submissions that are received as part of the consultation process however this information will not identify you in any way.

If you do not wish for the publication of your personal information to occur please make a note of this at the start of your submission. If your submission is sent to us via email, please consider whether automated statements in your email signature relating to confidentiality and disclosure of information should apply to the submission and delete or modify these statements if you consider them to be inappropriate.  

Our Privacy Policy

The agency’s Privacy Policy contains information about how you may:

• Access your personal information and seek correction of your personal information; and
• Complain to the agency about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles and how the agency will deal with your complaint.

How to contact us

Phone:  +61 7 4750 0700
Post:  PO Box 1379, Townsville QLD 4810 AUSTRALIA
Email: privacy@gbrmpa.gov.au

More information

Further information about privacy and the Privacy Act may be obtained from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s website www.oaic.gov.au.