This site is owned and operated by the City of Melbourne using software licensed from Harvest Digital Planning (Harvest). For details on how the City of Melbourne collects and protects your personal information in the course of your engagement with Participate Melbourne, refer to its Privacy Statement below. For details of how Harvest may access personal information, please refer to Harvest’s Privacy Policy.
The City of Melbourne takes the privacy of the participants using this site very seriously.
Our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information is regulated by the Victorian Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014. You can find more information about your privacy rights at the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner.
This Privacy Statement applies to Participate Melbourne. For information about the broader collection and use of personal information by the City of Melbourne, please refer to our Privacy Policy.
We use the personal information about you to:
- administer the site and manage your account
- identify when you sign into your account
- send you newsletters and information, but only when you have agreed to us sending you this information or when the information is necessary to assist with the administration of the site
- respond to queries that you have contacted us about
- attribute content that you post on the site to you
- analyse use of the site to inform ongoing improvements and enhancements
- inform policy decisions by the City of Melbourne
- for any other purposes that we indicate to you when we request your personal information.
Content that you post on the site publicly will be able to be viewed by everyone who uses the site. Each post will contain your username and any publicly available reports from consultations, and may include quotes from participants in forums, surveys and other consultation tools.
The feedback you submit will be forwarded in the first instance to the relevant City of Melbourne work area with responsibility for administering the subject matter or project to which your feedback relates. Your survey responses when forwarded to the relevant Council work area will exclude your name, contact details or other information that could directly identify you.
The City of Melbourne will generate an internal Knowledge Bank as a central repository of all public and closed feedback responses which will be made available to all City of Melbourne staff members. Staff members will also add any verbal feedback you provide to them in their interactions with you to the Knowledge Bank where you have consented. The Knowledge Bank tags feedback responses based on their subject matter and the suburb from which they are received. The City of Melbourne can filter the responses by subject matter or suburb to inform future projects, gain insights into neighbourhood sentiment or key themes, and to ensure the provision of consistent service delivery across the organisation. The Knowledge Bank excludes your name, contact details or other information that could directly identify you.
Moderation
By monitoring this additional information that you provide, we are able to protect the integrity of the discussions from individuals and groups who may attempt to unduly influence the outcomes of a consultation process. For example, we check to ensure each user has a single email account. We also review the site to protect it from spam or trolls.
Third Parties
We may also disclose personal information to third parties, and you consent to us disclosing your personal information, for the following purposes:
The following research consultants engaged by the City of Melbourne to assist with reviewing, interpreting and gaining insights into feedback submitted via Participate Melbourne:
- Global Research Limited (ABN: 26158335950). Global Research securely stores the raw feedback responses on Microsoft Azure servers located in Melbourne and Sydney data centres.
- Capire Consulting Group (ABN 52 125 105 660)
- Cultural Perspectives (ABN 30 065 353 951).
- Elton Consulting (ABN 56 003 853 101).
- Liminal by Design (ABN 20 614 850 190).
- Max Hardy Consulting (ABN 44 704 423 122)
- MosaicLab (ABN 29 650 739 230).
- Red Road Consulting (ABN 99 080 294 522).
- RPS AAP Consulting (ABN 97 117 883 173).
- C3X (ABN 68 606 157 091).
- Phoenix Facilitation Limited (ABN 74 098 731 830).
- Jacinta Cubis (ABN 33 233 001 231).
- Conversation Caravan (ABN 25 824 367 005)
The insights derived from the feedback by the research consultants assist the City of Melbourne with identifying particular patterns or areas for service improvement and the creation of better projects, plans and policies. The information supplied to the research consultants is limited to raw feedback responses and excludes the provision of your name, contact details or other information that could directly identify you. All consultants have agreed to the collection, use and disclosure of the raw feedback responses in accordance this Privacy Collection Statement for using Participate Melbourne.
In the case of submissions you make on planning scheme amendments, the Council will disclose your entire submission including your contact details to Planning Panels Victoria which sits within the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. Submissions and contact details are stored in a Panel Book (typically a OneDrive file shared between all parties to the panel, where it is stored for 3 months before deleting). Planning Panels Victoria will facilitate all contact with you on matters relating to the panel process including to circulate agendas, inform you of the date and time of the panel hearing and to send correspondence to you on any other matters relating to the relevant planning scheme amendment.
The City of Melbourne will not disclose your information to another external party without your consent, unless required or authorised by law.
Access and correction
If you wish to access, correct or delete any of the personal information you have supplied to the City of Melbourne, please send your request to Council via email to participate@melbourne.vic.gov.au.
