Department of Veterans’ Affairs Privacy Collection Notice – Interview Registration

Mental Health and Wellbeing Service Review and Transformation Program

Privacy Collection Notice – Interview Registration

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) is committed to transforming services to meet the needs of all veterans and families. The Mental Health and Wellbeing Service Review and Transformation Program will use input from the veteran community, staff and service providers to develop a future model of mental health and wellbeing service delivery which will guide how we provide support to current and former Australian Defence Force (ADF) members and families.

Who is collecting your personal information?

Your personal information is being collected by the Commonwealth of Australia, represented by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (ABN 23 964 290 824) (‘Us’, ‘We’, ‘Our’).

What personal information is being collected?

We are collecting general information about you and the DVA mental health and wellbeing support services you have used, including Open Arms – Veterans & Families Counselling, in order to determine whether we will invite you to attend an individual service experience interview.

Specifically, we are collecting general information about whether you are a veteran and/or family member; the reason you or your family member left the ADF; your age, gender, state/territory, and type of location your reside in; and the DVA mental health and wellbeing support services you have used, including when you last used them.

We are also collecting your name and contact details in order to make interview arrangements if you are selected for an interview, or to advise you if you have not been selected.

You do not have to provide this information if you prefer not to, however incomplete responses may affect your chances of being selected for an interview. If you do not consent to us collecting and using your personal information in the manner described in this notice, you should not complete the interview registration process and submit your responses.

Why is your personal information being collected?

We are collecting information about you and the support services you have used in order to ensure we select a representative cross section of veterans, family members and service experiences for the Program interview process. We will base our selection decisions on the information you provide in your answers to the questions on the registration form.

Who will we disclose your personal information to?

Access to responses you provide in the registration process, including your name and contact details, will be restricted to members of the DVA Mental Health and Wellbeing Service Review and Transformation Program Team. Your personal responses and information will not be shared with any other parties within or outside DVA.

How will we manage your personal information?

Information collected in the registration process will be stored securely on the Qualtrics platform until the survey period closes. This information will only be accessed by members of the DVA Program Team, who will download data provided by all registrants at the end of the registration period, then delete the records on Qualtrics.

The downloaded data will be stored, collated and analysed by members of the Program Team only; and will not be shared with any other parties. The information you provide will be kept confidential and secure at all times. We will seek your permission if we wish to retain your name and contact details for other Program activities, particularly if you are not selected for an interview at this time.

All interview registration information will be disposed of securely when no longer legally required to be held by us. We will not disclose your personal information overseas.

What will happen if we don’t collect your personal information?

Registration for an interview is voluntary and will not in any way affect any pension, benefits or services which you or your family are entitled to from DVA, or which you may become entitled to in the future. By providing your personal information to us for the registration process, you consent to us collecting and handling your personal information in accordance with this privacy collection notice. 

If we don’t collect the personal information sought in the registration form, we will not be able to consider you for interview selection.

Our Privacy Policy

You can find out more about accessing and/or correcting your personal information with us, making a complaint, and about our approach to managing personal information via our privacy policy which you can find at www.dva.gov.au/privacy-policy. For information about our privacy policy, please contact Information.Law [at] dva.gov.au (Information[dot]Law[at]dva[dot]gov[dot]au)

If you have any questions about the collection of your personal information in accordance with this privacy collection notice, please contact department.response.managament.team [at] dva.gov.au (department[dot]response[dot]managament[dot]team[at]dva[dot]gov[dot]au)