Moderation Policy

Moderation Policy

The Consultation portal aims to facilitate community engagement, discussion and consultation. The moderation process aims ensure that comments do not breach the . Comments are checked manually by a moderator and then published by Stonnington.

To ensure that this experience is productive for everyone, the City of Stonnington asks you to ensure that you do not post any material that:
• Includes any language that a reasonable person would consider abusive, obscene, indecent or offensive
• A reasonable person would consider is defamatory, harassing or hateful
• You do not have the necessary rights, licences or consent to post
• Constitutes spam, unauthorised advertising or soliciting
• Invades anyone’s privacy or impersonates anyone
• Is off-topic or is excessively long
• Encourages conduct that may or would constitute a criminal offence or give rise to civil liability, or that otherwise violates any local, state, national or international law or regulation anywhere in the world, or
• Appears to contain irrelevant or excessive links or appears to contain code.

Comments made will be manually checked by a moderator to determine if the comment should be published or not. Comments may be removed if there is a breach of terms of use. Any decision to refuse publication or remove comments will be at the sole and absolute discretion of the City of Stonnington.  If a comment isn’t suitable for publication in its submitted form, Stonnington may give you an opportunity to revise it to comply with our Terms of Use and Moderation Policy.

Please contact us if a mistake has occurred so it can be dealt with as quickly as possible.

Privacy
The City of Stonnington believes that the responsible handling of personal information is a key aspect of democratic governance and is strongly committed to protecting an individual's right to privacy. Accordingly, Council is committed to full compliance with its obligations under the Information Privacy Act 2000 (Vic) (Act). In particular, the City of Stonnington will comply with the Information Privacy Principles contained in the Act. This Privacy Policy explains some of these Principles and how they may apply to you.

Personal Information
This Policy applies to personal information held by the City of Stonnington. Personal information refers to information or an opinion about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion, other than certain health or generally available information.

For example, Council holds personal information on its ratepayers, such as names and addresses, in order to carry out its functions including planning, valuation and property services. The City of Stonnington may also request personal information in order to provide education, welfare and other community services, such as eg child care services. In some instances, personal information may be contained on a public register (register of building permits, food premises and animal registration details).

The City of Stonnington will only collect personal information that is necessary for its functions and activities. In some instances, Council is required by law to collect personal information. Council will only collect sensitive information where you have consented or as permitted under the Act.

If it is reasonable and practical to do so, Council will collect personal information about you directly from you. When doing so, it will inform you of the matters set out in the Act, including the purpose/s for which the information is collected, and will use lawful and fair means. If the City of Stonnington collects personal informational about you from someone else, Council will take reasonable steps to make you aware of these matters.
Use and Disclosure

The City of Stonnington will only use personal information within Council, or disclose it outside Council, for the purpose for which it was collected or in accordance with the Act, for example where you have consented or where you would reasonably expect this to occur.

Where appropriate, Council will take steps to advise the person of the need to disclose their personal information prior to the disclosure of such information.

Access and Correction
Should you wish to access your personal information, please contact Council's Privacy Officer. Access will be provided except in the circumstances outlined in the Act, for example, where the information relates to legal proceedings or where the Freedom of Information Act 1982 applies. If you believe that your personal information is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date, you may request Council to correct the information. Your request will be dealt with in accordance with the Act.

Anonymity
Where lawful and practical, the City of Stonnington will give you the option of not identifying yourself when supplying information or entering into transactions with Council.

External Contractors
While personal information is usually handled by Council staff, the City of Stonnington may outsource some of its functions to third parties. This may require the contractor to collect, use or disclose certain personal information such as garbage collection. Council requires contractors to comply with the Act in all respects.

Complaints
If you feel aggrieved by Council's handling of your personal information, you may make a complaint to Council's Privacy Officer on 03 8290 1333. Your complaint will be investigated within five business days and a written response will be provided. Alternatively, you may make a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner (although the Commissioner may decline to hear the complaint if you have not first made a complaint to the City of Stonnington.)

Changes
The City of Stonnington may amend the Privacy Policy to reflect changes in legislation.

Further Information
If you have any queries about the Privacy Policy, please contact Council's Privacy Officer on 8290 1333.

Security
The development and management of the ‘Connect With Us’ portal is managed by the City of Stonnington.
The City of Stonnington will endeavour to maintain a secure system for storing personal information. Technological and operational policies and procedures are in place to protect personal information from misuse and loss and from unauthorised modification or disclosure. Council will dispose of personal information where it is no longer necessary to fulfil the purposes for which the information was collected or as required by law.

The City of Stonnington strives to protect comments and information you provide on the portal. The City of Stonnington will use all reasonable endeavours to ensure that your comments and information are not compromised. However, the City of Stonnington cannot guarantee that no Harmful Code will enter the Connect With Us website. You should be aware of the risks associated with using websites.
The City of Stonnington recommends that you use up-to-date firewall and anti-virus software to protect your computer systems.

Disclaimer
The City of Stonnington consultation portal “Connect With Us” is provided by Council for communication and information purposes
While every effort is made to ensure that the information contained is correct at the time of publication, details are subject to change.

Council will not accept any liability for any statements, opinions, discussions, errors or omissions through the website.
Links to other web sites or information sources are provided as a courtesy, however we cannot vouch for or take responsibility for the information contained in any links.

General
These Terms of Use are governed by the laws of  Australia and you agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Australia.
If any of these Terms of Use are held to be invalid, unenforceable or illegal for any reason, the remaining Terms of Use will continue in full force.
The Stonnington may revise these Terms and Conditions from time to time.

Please contact us if you have any questions, problems or feedback regarding our site.

Definitions
Harmful Code means any form of harmful surreptitious code or other contaminants, including viruses, bugs, trojan, spyware or adware.
You and Your means the user of www.stonnington.vic.gov.au website and the ‘Connect With Us’ portal.
Our or Us means the City of Stonnington.