Feedback, complaints, enquiries - privacy notice

What does this privacy notice apply to?

This privacy notice applies to all the ways you may provide us feedback, complaints, enquiries or reports of breaches of electoral or lobbying laws. There are different ways you may choose to do this, including:

• completing the Contact us form available on our website,
• posting mail to our PO Boxes or directly to our office locations,
• emailing us using one of our email addresses,
• telephoning us using one of our telephone numbers.

This privacy notice does not apply to public interest disclosures and internal staff grievances. In relation to Technology Assisted Voting, please refer to our Technology-assisted voting (telephone voting) – privacy collection notice.

We may collect personal information and health information when you provide us feedback, complaints, enquiries or reports

When you submit, send, email or telephone to provide us feedback, or make a complaint, enquiry or report we may collect the information you provide us, which could include your:

• Name,
• Date of birth,
• Contact details (e.g., telephone number, mobile number, email address, postal address), and
• The content or nature of your feedback, complaint, enquiry or report, and the date/time it was made or received.

If you have used our website to contact us, we will also be using cookies and keeping records of visits to our website. Please refer to our Website privacy statement for details.

The information you provide us is entirely voluntary and, in that respect, some information may be provided to us that is unsolicited and may not be collected by us.

Telephoning us 

Telephone calls via the general enquiries line are fed through an interactive voice response system where you will be presented with a variety of options for selection to help channel your enquiry through a specific queue. 

The NSW Electoral Commission’s telephones may display the number of the person who called, except for private/silent numbers. Our telephone system keeps an automated log of dates and times a telephone call is received. The nature of the call may be logged separately. 

Telephone calls made through our election enquiries centre are recorded and monitored for quality purposes during major election events. The person making the telephone call can let the customer service officer know they do not want the call to be recorded. 

Depending on the nature of the enquiry, callers will be asked to verify their identity (see our Privacy Management Plan for further information about our verification process).

Written records and file notes of telephone conversations may be kept by the NSW Electoral Commission in its electronic document management system or in a hard copy file. The NSW Electoral Commission decides what level of information is appropriate to be collected on a case-by-case basis, with the understanding that the details collected must contain enough information to be an accurate record of the issue.  

We may use the information you provide us

The NSW Electoral Commission may use the information you provide us in your feedback, complaint, enquiry or report to:

• facilitate the management, response and investigation of issues raised, 
• verify your identity and enrolment status as an elector,
• improve and review our services (including identifying resource needs, evaluating outcomes, and staff training),
• revise and update the Electoral Information Register to ensure that the information it contains is accurate, 
• undertake our legislative and administrative functions.

Data collected as click stream data and cookies when you visit our websites may be used to maintain, secure and improve our websites and enhance your experience when using them (with respect to click stream data and cookies, please refer to our Website privacy statement for details).

Your email address will not be added to any mailing lists without your consent.

The NSW Electoral Commission is an investigative agency within the meaning of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (PPIP Act) which means the information may be used for a purpose other than that for which it was collected if the proposed use is reasonably necessary to enable us to exercise our complaint handling or investigative functions.

Who may access the information you provide us?

NSW Electoral Commission staff and contractors will have access to the information you provide us in your feedback, complaint, enquiry or report (where there is an identified business need to do so).  

In some instances, it may be necessary to disclose your identity to provide the subject of a complaint with the full grounds to which they must respond. 

The NSW Electoral Commission must disclose your information if lawfully required and may also do so in other cases if lawfully authorised, for example, to other investigative agencies for law enforcement purposes. 

The NSW Electoral Commission is lawfully authorised to make referrals to ICAC of potential breaches of the laws administered by the NSW Electoral Commission and to coordinate investigation and enforcement. 

In relation to certain investigation and enforcement matters, the NSW Electoral Commission may disclose information for the purpose of reporting to the public about the progress or outcome of that investigation if it is in the public interest.

Are you required to provide us the information?

The provision of any personal information and health information when providing feedback or making a complaint, enquiry or report is entirely voluntary.

If you submit your feedback, complaint, enquiry or report by using the form available on our webpage, Contact us, some of the entry fields are designated as mandatory. 

If you use an alias or pseudonym as your name or wish to remain anonymous, we may still be able to ascertain your identity from other information provided to us or from your previous interactions with us.

If you would like us to respond to your feedback, complaint or enquiry your contact details are required.

Insufficient information (including anonymous communications) may delay or prevent us from being able to assist. The NSW Electoral Commission may not be able to properly investigate, consider or respond to the complaint or enquiry without sufficient information. In these cases, it is up to the person who contacted us to decide if they want to continue with the enquiry or not.

Can you access or amend the information you provide us?

This NSW Electoral Commission is exempt from providing access to or making amendments of your personal information and health information under the PPIP Act if this would detrimentally affect (or prevent the proper exercise of) our complaint handling functions or investigative functions.

For more information on how to access and request to correct your personal information please refer the NSW Electoral Commission’s Privacy Management Plan. 

Further information

For more information about how the NSW Electoral Commission manages feedback, enquires, complaints or reports please refer to the following relevant policies and procedures available in our Policy library:

• Complaints Management Policy in relation complaints about our service delivery, 
• Compliance and Enforcement Policy and Compliance and Enforcement Procedures in relation to allegations about third parties failing to comply with electoral or lobbying laws,
• Compliance and Enforcement Publication Policy which details the circumstances in which a disclosure may be made about the progress or status of certain investigation and enforcement matters, if in the public interest.

Please visit our Privacy webpage for more information about how NSW Electoral Commission handles personal information and health information. 

If you have privacy related concerns about your feedback, complaint, enquiry or report, please email privacy@elections.nsw.gov.au. 

The NSW Electoral Commission’s head office is located at 231 Elizabeth Street, Sydney NSW 2000. Our additional contact details are available on our webpage, Contact us.