Privacy and use

The Tasmanian Electoral Commission collects information about electoral participants in Tasmanian parliamentary elections to deliver on legislative obligations and functions within the Electoral Disclosure and Funding Act 2023 (the Act) and its regulations. This includes:

• applications from electoral participants to register for a parliamentary election
• lodgement by electoral participants of reportable political donation disclosures
• lodgement of election campaign returns which may include the disclosure of electoral expenditure, political donations and donors, relevant debt information and personal financial contributions, and
• claims made by eligible parties and House of Assembly members for expenditure from the Election Campaigns Fund and the Administration Fund./li>

How does the TEC use this information?

The Tasmanian Electoral Commission collects and uses the personal and financial information provided when electoral participants create their TEC Disclosures account, and from registrations and electoral finance disclosures by participants via the Portal, to:

• undertake its legislative and administrative functions relating to registrations, disclosures and claims under the Act, and to facilitate education, compliance, audit and investigation functions
• make decisions with respect to participants’ obligations and entitlements under the Act
• publish via TEC Disclosures information (including personal information) that the Commission is lawfully required to publish
• manage participants’ TEC Disclosures account and portal access, and
• send relevant notifications and educational materials via email to electoral participants.

Electoral participants are required to enter and submit information in the TEC Disclosures portal to comply with their obligations under the Act. If a participant is unable, or chooses not to use the portal, they must provide the same information using the equivalent approved PDF form. Any information provided to the Commission via an approved PDF form will be integrated into and published to TEC Disclosures by TEC staff. The TEC Disclosures portal’s electronic versions of existing PDF forms have been approved by the Tasmanian Electoral Commission for use by TEC staff and electoral participants, as required by relevant sections of the Act.

Who can access this information?

The TEC Disclosures portal generates registers of electoral participants, reportable political donations and election campaign returns available for public viewing, to facilitate the fair and transparent disclosure of electoral finances under the Act.

The Tasmanian Electoral Commission values the privacy of every individual’s personal information. With the exception of information that is required to be published under the Act, access to electoral participant’s personal information is restricted to a limited number of employees of the Tasmanian Electoral Commission and our contracted service providers for the purposes set out above. The Tasmanian Electoral Commission will only disclose collected personal information to other persons or entities if we are lawfully authorised or required to do so.

The Act, its regulations and guidelines require supporting documentation from electoral participants when lodging disclosures, including receipts, invoices, copies of advertising material, and campaign bank account statements. While the Act requires the lodgement of such documents, it does not require their publication – they are collected for the purposes of the Tasmanian Electoral Commission’s compliance and audit activities to ensure electoral participants are meeting their legislative obligations.

Generally, personal contact details such as phone numbers, email or street addresses are not published to the TEC Disclosures portal, unless specifically required by the Act. Contact information such as street addresses for entities, and general identifying information such as names, occupations and relevant business numbers (ABNs/ACNs) are published to TEC Disclosures as required by the Act. The TEC may decline to publish any registration, disclosure or declaration that we have reason to suspect is vexatious, false or misleading.

Can information in TEC Disclosures be amended by participants?

Electoral participants are responsible for ensuring their details are correct and current via their TEC Disclosures account settings. The Tasmanian Electoral Commission may contact a participant to submit an amended disclosure via their account in the portal, to submit additional supporting documentation to assist the Commission’s compliance activities in relation to registrations and disclosures, or if the Commission believes on reasonable grounds that any particulars in an application, declaration or other form are incomplete or incorrect.

Personal information protection

The Tasmanian Electoral Commission is committed to protecting the personal information it collects in conducting its legislative and administrative functions by using procedural, physical and technological safeguards around electoral participants’ personal information. Protecting Tasmanian electoral participants’ personal information is an important aspect of the way the Commission undertakes its work, while it also functions to support the objects of the Electoral Disclosure and Funding Act 2023 – to maintain a scheme for the fair and transparent disclosure of political donations and electoral expenditure, while facilitating public awareness of financial disclosures for Tasmanian parliamentary elections.