The Department of Government Services (‘DGS’ or ‘we’ or ‘us’) is responsible for administering the Volunteers Rebate. DGS is committed to protecting the privacy of your personal information.
We collect your personal information for the purposes of administering the Volunteers Rebate, including:
- processing and assessing your application;
- verifying your identity;
- assessing the information you provide and your supporting documentation;
- administering payments to you;
- communicating with you about your application;
- assessing and communicating with you about your eligibility for a future rebate; and
- trialling and implementing system and process changes to improve how we administer the Volunteers Rebate.
We may also collect your personal information from third parties, including Country Fire Authority (CFA), Shepparton Search and Rescue Squad (SSRS), Victoria State Emergency Service (VICSES), Secure Electronic Registries Victoria (SERV) and Valuer-General Victoria (VGV) as part of verifying the information you provide and verifying your volunteer eligibility (including your eligibility to receive a future rebate).
The types of personal information we may collect from you, and from third parties including CFA, VICSES, SSRS, SERV and VGV includes your name, contact details, date of birth, address, bank account details, property information, volunteer organisation membership affiliation and member number, and details from your identity information (e.g. passport number, driver licence number and Medicare number).
We may share your personal information with third parties, including State and Commonwealth departments and agencies for one or more of the purposes set out above, and otherwise to administer the Volunteers Rebate and comply with applicable laws. For example, we may disclose your personal information to the Australian Securities & Investments Commission, Attorney-General’s Department, Australian Taxation Office, CFA, Department of Treasury and Finance, Land Use Victoria, SERV, SSRS, VGV and VICSES for one or more of the purposes set out above.
Supporting documents you provide with your application (such as a council rates notice) may include personal information about another person (e.g., the name of a joint account holder or family member). If so, you must inform the other person about this privacy collection statement. We will only use and disclose their personal information to the extent necessary for one or more of the purposes, and to the third parties, set out above.
If you choose not to provide requested personal information, we may not be able to progress your application.
If you have any questions about how we will handle the personal information you provide or would like to gain access to your personal information, you can contact DGS by submitting an enquiry. For more information on how we handle personal information, please see the Volunteers Rebate guidelines and DGS’privacy policy.
Updated