Last updated: 09 March 2026
This is the Privacy Policy of the Shepherd Centre ABN 61 000 699 927. Please contact our Privacy Officer (as detailed below) if you require any further information regarding our Privacy Policy.
The Australian Government introduced new legislation that came into force on 21 December 2001 to protect the privacy of individuals and are the cornerstone of the privacy protection framework in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). This legislation comprises 10 Australian Privacy Principles that apply to private sector organisations. You can find out more about these principles by calling the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) through their website at https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy
The Shepherd Centre respects and upholds your right to privacy protection under the Australian Privacy Principles in regulating how we collect, use, disclose and hold your personal information. We have a detailed policy and set of procedures to ensure that only authorised staff have access to your personal information and that it remains safe, confidential and is only used for appropriate purposes and in accordance with this notice.
Your personal and sensitive information, including health information, is only collected as is necessary for a function or activity, or to enable the Shepherd Centre to carry out its work and deliver services. Specific information is contained in privacy collection notices at entry points into our service centres.
The types of personal information we may collect depends on your relationship with us. Please note, this is not an exhaustive list of the breadth of information that may be collected.
The Shepherd Centre will not collect sensitive information about health, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions or membership, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade association or union membership, sexual preferences or criminal record unless you have consented to give this information and it is relevant to the work of The Shepherd Centre. If collected, we will always collect such information in a non-intrusive, lawful and fair manner. Where we do handle health and children’s information these are treated as sensitive information and are subject to additional safeguards.
The Shepherd Centre may use secure cloud based tools, including AI enabled features within services and software, for analytics, reporting and service improvement. Such tools process data under The Shepherd Centre’s instructions and are subject to strict privacy, security and contractual controls. Decisions about children and families are always made by The Shepherd Centre professionals, not by automated systems alone.
We collect your personal information when you provide it to The Shepherd Centre in several ways, including but not limited to when you:
We may also collect your personal information in other ways, for example through the purchase of commercial lists, from publicly available sources, such as the telephone directory and from other like-minded organisations.
Occasionally we may collect information about you from third parties, that have a right to disclose it to us, when it’s not practical to obtain it from you. For example, we obtain personal information from third parties to help us identify people who might be interested in supporting us with significant donations. To help us conduct our activities, we may also collect information about you which is already available in the public domain. For example, through articles in the newspapers and public information on the internet.
If you would like to access the information we hold about you, you can write to the Privacy Officer at the address below. We will endeavour to give you access to that information within two weeks. In order to maintain the confidentiality of your personal information, we will ask you to come into The Shepherd Centre office nearest you with your identification documents before we give you access. If it is not practical for you to visit our office, we will arrange an alternative arrangement to check your identification before sharing the information with you.
If the information that we hold about you is incorrect or not up to date, we will update it as soon as possible after you have shown us how and why it is incorrect. In the unlikely event that we are unable to provide you with access to your personal information for legal reasons as specified in the Privacy Act, we will provide you with reasons for denying access.
If you want to change any information that you have previously given us, or if you want to opt out of future communications, please contact our Privacy Officer as detailed below.
If you have any complaints, questions or concerns about what information The Shepherd Centre holds or about the accuracy of that information, please contact our Privacy Officer as detailed below. You can also make a general complaint or provide feedback through The Shepherd Centre’s broader feedback and complaints mechanisms, including [email protected] or on our website https://shepherdcentre.org.au/contact-us/
The Shepherd Centre takes its obligations under the Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme very seriously and has embedded the OAIC guidelines for data breaches within its corporate policy and procedures. The Shepherd Centre is committed to a 4 step action plan for health services providers as set out by the OAIC in responding to data breaches: Contain, Evaluate, Notify and Review.
If you provide us with information, it is stored securely in our databases and only accessed by staff authorised by The Shepherd Centre. The Shepherd Centre uses a range of hardware and software security measures to protect our information and ensure that only authorised staff are granted access.
The Shepherd Centre’s website may contain links to other websites of interest. The Shepherd Centre does not control, and is not responsible for, the content or privacy practices of those websites. Please check the Privacy Policies on other websites before you provide your personal information to them.
The Shepherd Centre will not transfer your personal information overseas unless we have taken reasonable steps to ensure that the information being transferred will not be held, used or disclosed by the recipient of the information inconsistently with the Australian Privacy Principles. Transfer of information overseas would typically only occur for data processing purposes.
Any third party services used are set to store and process the data that we collect and manage within Australia, wherever possible. Where a service is used that requires transmission or storage of data outside of Australia, we have processes and controls during the selection, procurement, contracts and management to ensure security and privacy that meets our Australian expectations and the Australian Privacy Principles.
The Shepherd Centre will sometimes use third party service providers to conduct surveys and facilitate information collection and event registration. Some of these service providers conduct all or part of their business overseas, so your personal information may be transferred overseas as a result. The Shepherd Centre conducts a due diligence process before entering into any agreement with service providers and will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your information is not used in a manner inconsistent with the Australian Privacy Principles.
When visiting our website, The Shepherd Centre uses cookies to enhance your browsing experience and provide personalised content and advertising services that are tailored to you. We may also use tracking cookies from third parties such as Facebook, Google, Taboola and others which provide information about your usage of our website to tailor your advertisement experience and personalised content on their systems and websites.
Additionally, we may in some cases send cookie or provided information such as your email address and name to the Facebook Conversions API (CAPI) to improve our advertisements and to provide more personalised content experiences. We want to assure you that we take your privacy seriously and have implemented measures to protect your data. By using our website, you consent to our use of cookies and or CAPI in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
Forwarding credit card numbers or other sensitive information via email or facsimile is not safe. We suggest that you do not send information to us in either format. Certain sections of The Shepherd Centre website are secured using SSL technology to encrypt data between your browser and the website. If you are entering any payment or credit card information on the internet, you should confirm that the page is secured (padlock symbol in your browser) before entering any information. We make every effort possible to ensure your donations and transactions within our site are as secure and safe as possible for you.
By using our website you acknowledge and agree that the internet is inherently insecure and that you use the internet at your own risk. You acknowledge that you do not hold The Shepherd Centre liable for any security breaches, viruses, Trojans or other malicious software that may infect your computer, or any damages, loss of data, revenue or otherwise that may occur as a result of using our website/s.
We recommend the use of the latest version of widely used and maintained browsers, for example Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Apple Safari.
The Shepherd Centre may, without notice, amend or modify its Privacy Notice by posting the amended Privacy Notice to The Shepherd Centre’s website.
The Privacy Officer can be contacted by:
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