PRIVACY POLICY

Our Privacy Policy

Gellung Warl (‘we‘, ‘us‘ and ‘our‘) is established under section 10 of the Statewide Treaty Act 2025 (Vic) (the Statewide Treaty Act). Gellung Warl consists of three arms:

First Peoples’ Assembly: a democratically elected representative and deliberative body for Traditional Owners and First Peoples in Victoria (Assembly);
Nginma Ngainga Wara: the accountability arm, which conducts independent monitoring and inquiries; and
Nyerna Yoorook Telkuna: the truth-telling arm to conduct future truth-telling and healing.

This Privacy Policy is designed to tell you what will happen to the information you provide to us, or our agents or contractors. Please be sure to read this entire Privacy Policy before using our website or submitting personal information to us or our agents or contractors.

Gellung Warl is committed to protecting the privacy of personal information and complying with all applicable privacy laws (including the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) and the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic) (Health Records Act)) (Privacy Laws).

This Privacy Policy should be read together with any other privacy statement, including any Collection Notice that we may provide to you when we collect your personal information.

Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Indigenous Data Governance

Gellung Warl recognises First Peoples’ data as a valuable resource to them that should be used to enable their self-determined priorities and aspirations, in line with their values and worldviews.

Gellung Warl asserts the individual and collective rights of First Peoples to control, protect, maintain and develop information and knowledge that is about, connected to or may affect them.

This Privacy Policy is subject to the Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Indigenous Data Governance principles to the extent possible having regard to applicable laws.

Personal Information, Sensitive Information and Health Information

This Privacy Policy concerns any of your personal information, sensitive information or health information which is provided to us.

What is personal information?

Personal information is information or an opinion (including information or an opinion forming part of a database), that is recorded in any form and whether true or not, about an individual whose identity is apparent, or can reasonably be ascertained, from the information or opinion.

What is sensitive information?

Sensitive information is any personal information about an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a political association, religious beliefs or affiliations, philosophical beliefs, membership of a professional or trade association, membership of a trade union, sexual preferences or practices, or criminal record.

We will collect, use or disclose sensitive information about you only as allowed by law, for example where we have received your consent to do so (or, where appropriate, the consent of a parent or guardian) or the collection is required by law.

We acknowledge that the personal information you provide to us may include culturally sensitive or culturally secret information. That information will be handled in accordance with any internal rules made under the Statewide Treaty Act. If you have questions or concerns about how your culturally sensitive or culturally secret information is managed by Gellung Warl, we strongly encourage you to contact us at the details below.

What is health information?

Health information includes, among other things, information or an opinion about the health (physical, mental or psychological) of an individual, an individual’s disability or an individual’s expressed wishes about future provision of health services to them.

Your consent

By providing us with your personal information (either directly, through others, or indirectly through your use of our website) you agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy and consent) to the collection, use, and disclosure of that information in accordance with this Privacy Policy, any applicable Privacy Laws and any applicable Collection Notice.

How we collect your personal information

We collect personal information that is necessary for our activities and in order to carry out our functions. We may collect personal information in a number of ways, including:

directly from you, when you provide it to us or our agents or contractors, including when you contact us via telephone, email, our website or social media;
through the completion of forms;
by registering your interest or support for Gellung Warl, including joining our mailing list;
from third parties;
from publicly available resources;
by analysing our own records of your use of our website;
from our social media websites or applications; and
as part of our community activities and consultations.

Gellung Warl will usually collect personal information directly from you. However, we sometimes need to collect information from a third party. Where we collect personal information from a third party, we will take such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to notify you, or ensure you are aware, of that collection and the circumstances of collection.

We also may collect your personal information when legally required or authorised to do so, including for the purposes of performing our functions, and we will seek to notify you where this is the case.

What personal information do we collect?

The type of personal information we collect may include:

your biographical details, such as your name, date of birth, gender, occupation and racial or ethnic identification;
your contact details, such as your address, postcode, telephone number and email address;
information regarding your participation in, or connection to, Gellung Warl activities, including your relationship to any group participating in Gellung Warl activities;
information about how you use our website; and
other information from which you are identifiable or reasonably identifiable.

Gellung Warl may take photographs as part of its regular activities, including at community engagement events. You will be notified at the commencement of an event if photos will be taken and will be able to request to not have your photo taken.

If we are not provided with the personal information that we request, we may not be able to respond to or action your request, or provide assistance to you.

Why do we collect your personal information?

The personal information you provide us may be used for several purposes connected with our functions and activities, which include, but are not limited to:

maintaining accurate and up-to-date contact information for Assembly members; Nginma Ngainga Wara members and Nyerna Yoorrook Telkuna members;
managing reserved member notices of appointment for Gellung Warl selection processes;
handling information regarding nomination and election of candidates in the Assembly’s general election
communicating with community members and stakeholders about Gellung Warl’s work, including obtaining data insights as part of managing and promoting Gellung Warl, including as part of any Community Governance and Answerability Framework;
consulting and seeking feedback on Gellung Warl’s work, including calls for submissions on particular issues;
supporting truth-telling, allowing for the sharing and recording of experiences, and supporting healing for First Peoples;
conducting research, monitoring, and reporting on outcomes for First Peoples;
engaging with the community, facilitating participation, sending news and information about our activities and events and reporting on engagement activities;
managing and responding to complaints, allegations of misconduct, or dispute resolution processes; and
fulfilling any other statutory functions or powers conferred on Gellung Warl and its subsidiary bodies under the Statewide Treaty Act.

Your personal information may be used so that we, our agents and contractors can provide you with information about our activities, such as by way of direct mail, and, where you have opted in, by email, SMS and MMS, or to request your feedback. You always have the right to opt-out of receiving such information. You may exercise that right by contacting us as set out below.

We may also use your personal information for purposes related to those described above which would reasonably be expected by you.

We will not use your information for purposes other than those described above unless we have your consent (or, where appropriate, the consent of a parent or guardian) or as required by law.

Sharing your personal information

We may disclose your personal information in certain circumstances, such as where we are required or authorised by law or where you (or, where appropriate, a parent or guardian) have consented to us doing so.

We also may disclose your personal information to:

others in accordance with a request made by you;
our related entities;
government or statutory bodies
social media and other digital platform providers, communication or similar organisations that we engage with to facilitate our communications and promote Gellung Warl’s elections and activities; or
our contracted service providers that we use to perform services on our behalf and persons engaged in providing us with professional, business, technology and corporate services, when reasonably required (for example, agencies or companies providing management services to facilitate Gellung Warl’s communications).

We will ordinarily notify you to whom we will disclose your personal information at the time we collect the relevant information from you, subject to the exclusions set out in Privacy Law. We do not supply our database information to marketing organisations not acting on our behalf. When making such a disclosure we will take reasonable steps to ensure that the recipient is bound by privacy obligations.

How personal information might be used in research

Your personal information may be used by Gellung Warl in carrying out research to support the work of Gellung Warl and the administration of the Statewide Treaty Act. The findings or outcomes of that research may be shared publicly.

If your personal information is used to inform research carried out by Gellung Warl, your personal information will be de-identified or made anonymous. Where personal information may be identifiable in any research publication of Gellung Warl, we will seek your prior, informed consent for the publication of that personal information.

Does my personal information leave Victoria?

We will only send your personal information outside Victoria:

if we are authorised to do so by law;
for any of the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy (but only to parties that are subject to obligations in relation to personal information no less onerous than those in this Privacy Policy); or
if you have consented to us doing so.

Access and correction

You (or, where appropriate, a parent or guardian) may request access to any of the personal information we hold about you by contacting us as specified below. You may be asked to put your request in writing. We may require you to verify your identity and specify what information you require. Gellung Warl may charge a fee to cover the cost of accessing and/or updating your personal information. If we cannot provide you with access to your personal information, we will provide you with a written notice to explain the reasons for refusal.

We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we collect, use or disclose is accurate, complete and up to date. To ensure your personal information is accurate, please notify us of any errors or changes to your personal information and we will take appropriate steps to update or correct such information in our possession.

Storage and security

We will take all reasonable precautions to safeguard your personal information from loss and misuse, and from unauthorised access, modification, disclosure or destruction. We implement a range of security measures to protect the personal information that we hold. These measures include applying security classification principles and only allowing authorised people to have access to your information.

You should keep in mind that no internet transmission is ever completely secure or error-free.

We will only keep your personal information for as long as it is necessary to do so for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, subject to any legal obligation to retain information and for archiving in compliance with the Public Records Act 1973 (Vic).

We will destroy or de-identify personal information when it is no longer required for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, unless we are otherwise required or authorised by law to retain that personal information.

Links to third party websites and services

Our website includes links to pages and services provided by third parties. Where you access links to web pages or services that are outside our web domain you will be leaving our website and going to a web page controlled by a third party. When you access such links, Gellung Warl’s privacy practices, and this Privacy Policy, no longer apply to you or your personal information. Information collected on any third party’s website will be managed in accordance with the third party’s own privacy policies.

Unless otherwise indicated, we:

do not endorse or authorise the content of any third party website;
are not affiliated or associated with the owner or operator of any third party website; and
assume no responsibility or liability for the condition or content of any third party website or for the operation or function of any service or facility offered on any third party website.

Google Analytics

Our website uses Google Analytics to track certain activities by, and collect information about, visitors. Google Analytics anonymously tracks how visitors interact with our website, including which websites they visited immediately prior to our website, what they did on our website, such as registering to receive our newsletter.

Our website may collect technical data, which may include your IP address, the type of device you are using to access our website, device attributes, browser type, language and operating system and other information such as the location from which you have come to our website and the pages you visited prior to our website. Our website also uses cookies. Such data may qualify as personal information under Privacy Laws, however it is not used to identify individual users of our website.

For more information on how Google Analytics collects and processes data, see www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners.

Meta Pixel

We use the Meta Pixel (a service from Meta Platforms, Inc., 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA) on our website to understand user behaviour, improve our website, and optimise our advertising campaigns.

The Meta Pixel is a snippet of code that allows Meta to place cookies on your browser. This enables us to track actions you take on our site (such as purchasing a product, visiting a page, or filling out a form) after you have clicked on a Facebook or Instagram ad. This process allows us to evaluate and analyse the effectiveness of our ads for statistical and market research purposes. 

The data collected is anonymous to us as website operators; we cannot see the personal information of individual users. However, this data is stored and processed by Meta, and Meta may link this information to your Facebook or Instagram account and use it for its own advertising purposes, in accordance with Meta’s Data Usage Policy (https://www.facebook.com/privacy/policy/.). 

You can opt out of Meta Pixel tracking by adjusting your browser settings to block cookies, using browser extensions, or managing your ad preferences via your Facebook or Instagram account.

Complaints

If we collect and hold your personal information, you have a right to make complaint and have it investigated and dealt with in accordance with the below steps. The complaint may be about us or our agents or contractors. [If you have any questions or concerns about our collection, use or disclosure of personal information, or if you believe we have not complied with this Privacy Policy or any Privacy Laws, please contact us as set out below. Our Privacy Officer will investigate the complaint and determine whether Gellung Warl or its contracted service providers will deal with the complaint directly, and whether a breach has occurred and what action, if any, to take. If you have questions or concerns about how your sensitive cultural knowledge or sensitive information is being managed, we strongly encourage you to contact us at the details below.

Gellung Warl aims to deal fairly and promptly with complaints. However, if you remain dissatisfied, you can also lodge a formal complaint with the Office of the Victorian Information Commission (OVIC) (which is the primary regulator of the Victorian public sector’s collection, use and disclosure of personal information):

Address: PO Box 24274, Melbourne VIC 3001
Telephone: 1300 006 842 (international callers may call +61 3 8662 3400)
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://ovic.vic.gov.au

How to contact us

If you wish to exercise your right to opt-out of receiving our direct mail materials, or you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our information practices, please contact us at:

Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 1800 TREATY (87 32 89)
Address: PO Box 4218, Fitzroy VIC 3065

Changes to this Privacy Policy

Our Privacy Policy may change from time to time as updated on our website. Before providing us with personal information, please check this Privacy Policy on our website for any changes.

Date

This Privacy Policy was last updated on 1 May 2026.

Version

Version 1.1