Terms and conditions

Portal terms of use

1. General

   1. This Online Services portal (Portal) is owned and operated by the Commonwealth of Australia as represented by the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (Department, we, us).
   2. The Portal is available for you to access and upload Material, subject to these terms of use (Terms).
   3. By accessing or using this Portal, you irrevocably agree to be bound by these Terms.
   4. In these Terms, the following definitions are used:
      

      Material

      means materials, information, documents or data or any combination of them;

      Your Material

      means Material you submit, post, transmit to or otherwise upload or enter onto the Portal;

      Our Material

      means Material we present on, that is otherwise contained on or that forms part of, the Portal, other than Your Material;

      IP Rights

      means all intellectual property rights, including the following:

      1. copyright, patents, rights in circuit layouts, trademarks, designs, trade secrets, know how, domain names and any right to have confidential information kept confidential;
      2. any application or right to apply for registration of any of the rights referred to in paragraph (i); and
      3. all rights of a similar nature to any of the rights in paragraphs (i) and (ii) which may subsist in Australia or elsewhere, whether or not such rights are registered or capable of being registered.
   5. In these Terms:
      
      1. words in the singular include the plural and words in the plural include the singular;
      2. a reference to the word "including" in any form is not to be interpreted as a word of limitation; and
      3. capitalised terms that are defined in these Terms have the same meaning when used elsewhere in these Terms.

2. Use of Portal

   1. You must only use the Portal, or Our Material, for the limited purposes set out in paragraph 2(b). Subject to paragraph 2(b), you are prohibited from:
      
      1. reproducing Our Material;
      2. reselling or distributing Our Material;
      3. re-transmitting the Our Material by any medium of communication;
      4. uploading and/or reposting Our Material to any other site on the Internet; and
      5. “framing” Our Material with other material on any other site on the Internet.
   2. You may access and download Our Material from the Portal solely for your own use provided that you must not:
      
      1. make Our Material available to third parties on any commercial terms; or
      2. remove any copyright or trade mark notices contained on Our Material.
   3. You must not modify or copy:
      
      1. the layout of the Portal; or
      2. any computer software and code contained in or forming part of the Portal.

3. Responsible use of the Portal

   1. You must only use the Portal for lawful and authorised purposes. Your storage, transmission or distribution of any Material in violation of laws of the Commonwealth of Australia or any State or Territory of Australia in any way that relates to your use of the Portal is prohibited. This includes Material that is viewed under law as threatening or obscene, or any Material that may be viewed by any entity as a protected trade secret.
   2. You represent and warrant in relation to Your Material that:
      
      1. such Material is current, complete, and accurate;
      2. you are authorised to provide Your Material and have the necessary rights in Your Material to grant the licences as provided for in these Terms;
      3. you agree, to the extent reasonably practicable, to promptly update such Material to maintain their completeness and accuracy;
      4. Your Material is not defamatory or a malicious falsehood in relation to any product, service, person or corporation or set of facts or circumstances;
      5. Your Material is not the "passing off" of any product or service and does not constitute unfair competition or infringe the rights of any person or corporation;
      6. Your Material does not, and the Department’s use of Your Material will not, infringe any IP Rights; and
      7. Your Material does not infringe any laws.
   3. The Department may reasonably request you to provide proof of your identity for verification purposes. By agreeing to these Terms you agree to promptly comply with any such request that is made.
   4. You agree to comply with rules, regulations and acceptable usage policies that may be in force for each system that you access via the Portal. If you do not, we may terminate or suspend your access to the Portal under paragraph 11.
   5. You will at all times indemnify and keep indemnified the Department and our respective officers, employees and agents (Those Indemnified) from and against any loss (including legal costs and expenses on a full indemnity basis) or liability incurred by any of Those Indemnified arising from any claim, demand, suit, action or proceeding by any person against any of Those Indemnified where such loss or liability arose out of, in connection with or in respect of:
      
      1. any breach by you of the Terms;
      2. Your Material; or
      3. your use of the Portal.

4. Account information

   By using the Portal you accept responsibility for:

   1. maintaining the confidentiality of any account information including user names, logins, passwords, and security questions and answers that you use to access any page or feature on this Portal;
   2. logging off from your account and any protected areas of the Portal;
   3. all activities occurring under your accounts, user names, logins, passwords, and security questions and answers including that which may result from your negligence, carelessness, misconduct, or failure to use or maintain appropriate security measures; and
   4. promptly reporting any suspicious or unauthorised conduct concerning your accounts, user names, logins, passwords, or security questions and answers to the Department where you become aware of it.

5. Licence to use Intellectual Property

   1. By uploading Your Material to the Portal, you agree to grant (or procure for) the Department a perpetual, non-exclusive and payment-free licence throughout the world to:
      1. reproduce, use and exploit the IP Rights in Your Material to the full extent permitted by law in any jurisdiction in which the Portal is available to users for all purposes described in these Terms and any reasonably related secondary purposes; and
      2. allow the Department to sub-license to others the same rights granted to the Department in this paragraph 5.
   2. To the extent that any moral rights subsist in any of the Material you submit via the Portal, you represent and warrant that you consent (and have obtained each other author's consent) to the Department doing any act or omission including editing, changing or deleting some or all of the materials or information, which would, but for this consent, be contrary to the relevant moral rights.

6. User acting on behalf of another person

   Where you are using this Portal to access Our Material relating to, or to carry out a transaction on behalf of, another person:

   1. you must be currently appointed by that other person to access that Material or carry out that transaction on their behalf, and that appointment must not have been revoked;
   2. if that appointment is based on you holding a certain position (for example, as that other person’s employee or agent) – you must currently hold that position;
   3. if that appointment is based on you holding a certain qualification (for example, as a legal practitioner) – you must currently hold that qualification and that qualification must not currently be suspended or cancelled; and
   4. you agree to comply with any request made by the Department for you to verify your appointment to act under paragraph 6(a), (b) or (c) above.

7. Links to other websites

   1. This Portal may contain links to sites on the Internet owned and operated by third parties and which are not under the Department’s control.
   2. In relation to the other sites on the Internet, which are linked to the Portal, the Department:
      
      1. provides the links to other sites as a convenience to you and the existence of a link to other sites does not imply any endorsement by us of the contents of the linked sites;
      2. is not responsible for accuracy or otherwise of the Material contained on those linked sites; and
      3. to the extent permitted by law, accepts no liability (whether in contract, tort (including negligence), statute or otherwise) in respect of those linked sites.

8. Disclaimer

   1. The Department does not warrant, guarantee or make any representation that:
      
      1. the Portal, or the servers that make the site available on the Internet are free of software viruses;
      2. the functions contained in any software contained on the Portal will operate uninterrupted or are error-free; and
      3. errors and defects in the Portal will be corrected.
   2. To the extent permitted by law, the Department is not liable to you for:
      
      1. errors or omissions in the Portal, or linked sites on the Internet;
      2. delays to, interruptions of or cessation of the services provided via the Portal, or linked sites;
      3. the Portal not being available or operative; and
      4. defamatory, offensive or illegal conduct of any user of the Portal, whether caused through the Department’s negligence or the negligence of its employees, independent contractors or agents, or through any other cause.
   3. You agree to accept the full cost of any necessary repair, correction and maintenance of any of your computer software or hardware, which may be necessary as a consequence of you accessing the Portal.
   4. Under no circumstances (including due to any act or omission on the part of the Department) will the Department be liable to you for any direct or indirect loss or damage (including special, consequential or exemplary damages or damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data or other intangible losses) suffered by you as a result of, or in connection with:
      1. your use of the Portal (including any Material or links made available through the Portal or reliance on any opinions or recommendations made available through the Portal);
      2. your use of any links and linked websites made available through the Portal or any Material made available through such linked websites;
      3. unauthorised access to, or alternation of, Your Material (including during your transmission of Your Material over the Internet); and
      4. statements or conduct of any third parties on the Portal (including opinions and recommendations of third parties or materials made available for download).

9. IP Rights

   1. All IP Rights comprised in or derived from the Portal, including copyright in Our Material or copyright comprised in the Portal itself or arising due to the provision of services by us via the Portal are owned by us or the relevant third party owners.
   2. All logos, icons, brand names or service names that identify the Department remain the property of the Commonwealth of Australia. All other trade marks or service marks on this Portal are the property of their respective owners. Any unauthorised use of Material appearing on the Portal may violate IP Rights of the Commonwealth or third parties.

10. Online payments

    1. Online payments may be made through the Government EasyPay gateway operated by the Reserve Bank of Australia (Payment Gateway). The Payment Gateway charges a credit card surcharge including GST for successful Visa and MasterCard credit card payments and a Payment Gateway transaction fee. By making a credit card payment using the Payment Gateway, you agree to pay the credit card surcharge. The Department will pay the Payment Gateway transaction fee.
    2. The Department accepts no responsibility for the delivery of services by any independent third party service providers to the extent permitted by law and is not responsible for errors made by you when authorising any deduction against your credit or debit card.
    3. Subject to any responsibilities implied by law and which cannot be excluded, the Department is not liable to you for any losses, damages, liabilities, claims and expenses (including legal costs and defence or settlement costs) whatsoever arising out of or referable to the Payment Gateway or to third party material, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), statute or otherwise.
    4. Any credit or debit card related data (including your credit or debit card details) will be stored and maintained in the Payment Gateway and not within this Portal.

11. Termination or suspension of access

    1. The Department may terminate or suspend access to the Portal at any time without giving any explanation or justification for the termination or suspension. The Department will have no liability for any costs, losses or damages of any kind arising as a consequence of terminating of suspending access to the Portal.
    2. If the Department terminates your access to the Portal under clause 11(a), the Department will provide you with a refund in respect of any payment made by you in advance for a service that is connected with this Portal, where that service has not been supplied to you. Where part of the service has been provided to you, you will be refunded for that portion of the service that has not been provided.
    3. If the Department terminates your access to the Portal due to your breach of these Terms, you will not be entitled to a refund in respect of any payment made during your use of the Portal.

12. Alteration of Terms

    The Department may, at any time, and at the Department's absolute discretion, vary these Terms by making available a varied copy of these Terms on the Portal. If you continue to use the Portal following a change to the Terms you are deemed to have accepted the new Terms.

13. Removal of information

    The Department may remove any Materials included on the Portal, including links to other sites on the Internet, at any time without giving any explanation or justification for removing the Material.

14. General

    1. You must not assign, sub-license or otherwise deal in any other way with any of your rights under these Terms without the Department's prior written approval.
    2. Each indemnity given by you under these Terms is a continuing indemnity which shall continue upon expiry or termination of your agreement under these Terms.
    3. If any part of these Terms is found to be void, unlawful, or unenforceable then that part will be deemed to be severable from the balance of these Terms and the severed part will not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.
    4. These Terms will be governed by and interpreted in accordance with the law of the Australian Capital Territory.
    5. You agree to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Australian Capital Territory to determine any dispute arising out of these Terms.
    6. If you have any questions relating to the Portal or these Terms, you can contact, please submit an ask us anything enquiry to the Community Information Unit.

PORTAL PRIVACY NOTICE

The Department will collect, use, store and disclose the personal information contained in the Portal in a manner consistent with its obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Department’s Privacy Policy.

Collection of personal information

The Department collects personal information from you:

• to process and assess applications submitted via the Portal;
• to provide services to you;
• to send communications to you;
• to provide information and to seek feedback on matters;
• to answer enquiries, and provide information or advice;
• to conduct our administrative functions;
• for the administrative, planning, product or service development, quality control and research, project and grant purposes of the Department, and our contractors or service providers;
• to update our records and keep your contact details up to date;
• to process and respond to any complaint made by you;
• to comply with any law, rule, regulation, lawful and binding determination, decision or direction of a regulator, or in co-operation with any governmental authority of another country;
• to ensure that we and members of the public comply with laws administered by the Commonwealth; and
• to conduct enforcement related activities.

The personal information we collect may include names, postal and street addresses, email address, telephone numbers and contact details and information for identification purposes.

The type of information we collect from you will depend on how and why you use the Portal and the requirements of applicable laws. Certain types of applications will not be processed without the provision of personal information. For example, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Regulations 2000 (Cth) require that the name, postal address and telephone number of the person making the referral, the person proposing to take the action and the proponent (if not the person proposing to take the action. If this information is not provided with this type of application, it will not be accepted. In some cases, there are mandatory requirements for this information to be published and/or made available for public comment. The information may be provided to various Commonwealth, State and Territory agencies for the purposes of administering the Commonwealth, State or Territory legislation. In addition, where relevant for the purposes of the services you seek, we may collect personal information from other government agencies.

If you do not provide us with the personal information we request via the Portal, some or all of the following may happen:

• we may not be able to grant you access to the Portal or provide some or all of the services you have requested via the Portal;
• we may not be able to provide you with information about products and services that you may want; or
• your application may not be accepted.

Disclosure of personal information

We may disclose your personal information to:

• contractors or service providers for the purposes of operating the Portal or our functions, fulfilling requests by you, and to otherwise provide information, products and services to you including web hosting providers, IT systems administrators, payment processors, data entry service providers, electronic network administrators and professional advisors such as accountants, solicitors, business advisors and consultants;
• suppliers and other third parties with whom we have commercial relationships for business, marketing, and related purposes;
• peer reviewers and committee members for the purpose of assessing your applications;
• an organisation that you have given consent for us to supply the information to;
• an organisation that you would reasonably expect us to supply the information to for a purpose that is related to the primary purpose of collection (for sensitive personal information, this secondary purpose must be directly related to the primary purpose);
• other Government agencies for the purposes of compliance breaches, investigations, legal actions and insurance claims;
• law enforcement bodies, agencies and authorities regarding infringement notices;
• our Minister, Parliamentary Secretary and portfolio agencies for the purposes of administering portfolio programs and functions; and/or
• a House or Committee of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia.

Personal information provided with an application, permit or referral for which mandatory publication requirements exist (for example, under the Environment Protection Biodiversity and Conservation Act 1999), will be published on our website. This information will then be available to the general public.

Public submissions made on applications, permits or referrals may be published by us as part of the assessment process required under legislation.

We may also disclose your personal information where we are required to by law or pursuant to certain situations permitted under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), for example where disclosure is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to the life, health or safety of any individual, or to public health or safety.

We may disclose personal information to third party suppliers and service providers, researchers and governments located overseas for the purposes listed above. This may include disclosure to:

• peer reviewers anywhere in the world where the appropriate scientific expertise exists; and
• overseas recipients if we believe the disclosure of the information is reasonably necessary for our enforcement related functions and the recipient is a body that performs functions, or exercises powers, that are similar to those performed or exercised by an Australian enforcement body.

We will take reasonable steps to ensure that the overseas recipients of your personal information do not breach the Australian Privacy Principles in relation to your personal information.

Privacy policy

Our Privacy Policy explains:

• how you may access and correct the personal information we hold about you; and
• how you may make a complaint about a breach of privacy and how we will deal with any privacy complaints.

If you have any queries about privacy, please contact our Privacy Contact Officer:

Privacy Contact Officer

Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment
GPO Box 787
CANBERRA ACT 2600
Phone: 02 6274 2603
Email: privacy@environment.gov.au