Privacy collection notice - recruitment

The Parliament of Victoria and the parliamentary departments are committed to protecting your privacy. We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) (PDP Act) and other relevant legislation.

When we refer to “us” or “we”, we mean each of the parliamentary departments under section 7 of the Parliamentary Administration Act 2005 (Vic) (PAA 2005), being the Department of the Legislative Council, the Department of the Legislative Assembly, and the Department of Parliamentary Services.  Together, the parliamentary departments provide support, infrastructure and professional services that enable the work of the Parliament of Victoria.

This privacy collection notice applies to our recruitment activities. It explains what information is collected when you apply for employment with a parliamentary department. It may be updated from time to time.

This privacy collection notice should be read in conjunction with our Privacy Policy which contains information about our broader privacy practices and how we handle personal information generally. 

The terms personal information, sensitive information and health information have the same meanings as in our Privacy Policy. In this collection notice, any reference to personal information is also a reference to health information and sensitive information unless otherwise stated. 

We collect personal information from individuals who apply for employment with a parliamentary department, including electorate officers nominated for employment by a Member of Parliament pursuant to section 30(1) of the PAA 2005 who are employed by the Secretary, Department of Parliamentary Services pursuant to a delegation from the Presiding Officers pursuant to section 32(3) of the PAA 2005.

We collect personal information that is reasonably necessary for us to administer and evaluate your application for employment.  This may include:

• information from your resume or application including your name, address, contact details such as phone numbers and email address, and employment history;
• academic transcripts or qualifications;
• referee details as provided;
• identity documents such as your drivers’ licence or passport;
• documents relating to your ability to perform work in Australia;  
• other miscellaneous information that you disclose; and
• information collected during the interview process. 

For certain positions, you may be asked to complete background and probity checks (such as a police check and a Working with Children Check), pre-employment health check, pre-employment misconduct declaration and other candidate assessments such as competency, digital literacy, or abstract reasoning assessments.

We do not collect sensitive or health information without your consent. 

Whilst you may interact with the Parliament of Victoria and the parliamentary departments anonymously where it is lawful and practicable to do so, if you do not provide all the information requested during the recruitment process, we may not be able to properly consider your application.

If you have any concerns about the information requested during the recruitment process, please contact Parliament’s Privacy Officer at PrivacyOfficer@parliament.vic.gov.au. 

We share your personal information with our staff who are relevant to the recruitment process and decision-making.  We will only disclose your personal information to third parties where we have told you beforehand and you have agreed to the disclosure.

The third parties that we may disclose your personal information to include:

• your referees (or the organisations they represent) to verify your employment, skills, talent and experience;
• your previous employers, registration bodies, professional associations or education institutions to verify your employment, registrations, qualifications and experience;
• our online video interview platform provider, MakeSure Group and/or Test Grid;
• our referee check provider, MakeSure Group; 
• our background check provider, MakeSure Group; 
• organisations that conduct psychometric, competency or pre-employment medicals on our behalf, MakeSure Group, Test Grid and/or Kinnect; and
• recruitment agencies or other third parties assisting us with recruitment for the position you are applying for. 

These third parties may separately seek your consent to conduct some of these checks on you. Whilst providing the requested information and consents are voluntary, if you do not provide your consent or all or part of the information required it may affect Parliament of Victoria’s and the parliamentary departments’ ability to properly assess or consider your application.

We may disclose your personal information overseas if you ask us to contact an overseas referee, or if we request an international criminal history check.

We may also disclose your personal information:

• to our service providers (such as our IT and analytics service providers);
• if you have consented to the disclosure;
• where disclosure is necessary to prevent injury to life or health; or
• if required or authorised by or under an Australian law or a court or tribunal order.

Information collected by our third party service providers will be managed in accordance with their own privacy policies. Please refer to the relevant third party privacy policy for further information. 

We collect your personal information at different stages during the application process, e.g. from your initial application, at interview, and when checking references.

In most cases, we collect personal information directly from you, including any sensitive information you choose to provide to us, such as information about your health relating to pre-existing conditions, injuries, or illnesses.

However, we also use the Careers.Vic website to collect and store applications for positions with the parliamentary departments. This means that once Careers.Vic have collected your information, it passes the information onto us, and then we consider your suitability as a candidate. Information collected by the Careers.Vic website is governed by their Privacy Collection Notice.

We may also receive your personal information indirectly, such as from a Member of Parliament who has provided nomination for the employment of an electorate officer.

We may also collect information about you from third parties, such as your nominated referees or the organisations they represent, and our background, referee, and probity check providers. Referees may provide us with information about you on a confidential basis.  If they do, you are not entitled to access this information, and we will not share it with you without the referee’s consent. 

We hold your personal information physically or in electronic databases and information systems. We take steps to protect your information from interference or unauthorised access or disclosure. Ordinarily, personal information received in the recruitment process would be contained in an electronic employee file or a recruitment file, accessible by the People & Capability team, the Hiring Manager, and the Selection Panel.

If your application is successful, we will keep your information as part of your employment record. If your application is unsuccessful, we keep your information for at least six months to comply with our legal record-keeping obligations. We may legally keep your personal information beyond this time for other legitimate purposes, such as to consider your suitability for other roles with us.

If a role arises that you may be interested in, we will contact you by email or telephone and ask if you consent to being considered further. You may then be forwarded information about that position or advised how to locate it on the web.

If you do not want your information retained in order to be considered for future roles, please email the Privacy Officer at PrivacyOfficer@parliament.vic.gov.au and we will remove your application from our recruitment database. 

We take all reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is accurate, complete, and up to date.

You may request access to, or correction of, your personal information which is in our possession in accordance with our Privacy Policy. If you have any questions about this privacy collection notice, please contact us by email at PrivacyOfficer@parliament.vic.gov.au. 

Contact: PrivacyOfficer@parliament.vic.gov.au

This privacy collection notice was last updated on 21 December 2023.