Privacy Policy

Landscaping Victoria (LV) is committed to quality and this Privacy Policy outlines our ongoing obligations to you in respect of how we collect and manage your Personal Information.

LV respects the need to protect the privacy of the Personal Information of individuals, businesses, and organisations with whom we deal, in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles (‘APPs’) of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act). The APPs govern the way in which we collect, use, disclose, store, secure, and dispose of your Personal Information.

The Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) can be obtained from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's website at https://www.oaic.gov.au/.

What is Personal Information, and why do we collect it?
Personal Information is information or an opinion that identifies an individual. LV only collects Personal Information that is reasonably necessary for our functions or activities, or is required by law.

LV collects your Personal Information:
to enable us to conduct our business, including meeting our legal and regulatory obligations;
to improve the products and services LV provides;
to provide information about products and services that have been requested or may be of interest to individuals, businesses, and organisations, and for marketing purposes; and
necessary for LV to deliver products and services requested by individuals, businesses, and organisations.

If all or some of an individual’s Personal Information is not collected, LV may be unable to deliver all the benefits, services, or products to the individual.

When we collect Personal Information, we will, where appropriate and possible, explain to you why we are collecting it and how we plan to use it.

Sensitive Information
The Privacy Act defines sensitive information as information or opinions about an individual's racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a political association, religious or philosophical beliefs, membership of a trade union or other professional body, criminal record, or health information.

Sensitive information will be used by us only:

for the primary purpose for which it was obtained;
for a secondary purpose that is directly related to the primary purpose; and/or
with your consent or where required or authorised by law.

How does LV collect Personal Information?
LV is committed to quality and integrity and only collects Personal Information by lawful and fair means.

LV collects Personal Information in many ways, including (but not limited to) when:

applying for a membership or sponsorship;
registering as event attendees;
subscribing to our mailing lists;
purchasing our products and services;
listing an employment opportunity or expression of interest on our website;
providing feedback via our website www.landscapingvictoria.com.au;
contacting us (via phone, email, facsimile, forms on our website, or social media channels) asking for information about LV;
making comments and posts on or including our social media profiles or account handles;
participating in interviews, and
booking events, media, and publication activity.

We may also collect information in other ways, including (but not limited to):

when we liaise with individual officers, employees, and other representatives of Landscaping Victoria;
when we liaise with government agencies, industry bodies, unions, and other stakeholders and organisations in the course of promoting the viewpoints and interests of the landscaping industry;
when we deliver training and events;
when we conduct research;
when we manage our corporate and personnel functions, including when people apply for or enquire about employment opportunities with LV; and
when we engage with people to pursue our objectives and manage organisational functions.

LV may also collect Personal Information through:

“Cookies”, “IP addresses”, and “session tokens”. We use software on our website and servers called cookies and session tokens, which store information and enable our website to recognise individuals’ web browsers and remember certain information to assist individuals’ future use of our website. Your IP address may also be stored as an additional security measure and may be used to identify you;
recording information individuals give us, e.g. if we record telephone conversations with individuals for training and monitoring purposes (we will only do this with individuals’ consent, and individuals will have the option to ‘opt-out’ of recording); or
from other publicly available sources and third parties. We don’t guarantee website links or the policy of authorised third parties.

LV typically collects personal information about individuals directly from them or their authorised representative as a result of and in connection with our ongoing business relationship with them.

Third Parties
Where reasonable and practicable, LV will collect your Personal Information only from you. However, in some circumstances, third parties may provide us with information. In such a case, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that you are made aware of the information provided to us by the third party.

Unsolicited Personal Information
If we receive Personal Information about you that we have not requested, and we determine that we could not have lawfully collected that information under the APPs had we asked for it, we will destroy or de-identify the information if it is lawful and reasonable to do so.

Use and Disclosure of Personal Information
LV will only use your Personal Information for the purpose it was provided to us, for related purposes, or as required or permitted by law. These purposes may include:

in the course of conducting our usual business, including (but not limited to) supplying or acquiring products and services; responding to enquiries and feedback; providing information about our events, news, publications and products and services that may be of interest to individuals; and maintaining a relationship;
for research purposes and the development of our products and services so that we are able to understand our customers’ needs better and customise our future products and services accordingly;
in performing general administrative activities, reporting, and management functions, including accounting and invoicing, payment processing, risk management, training, quality assurance, and managing suppliers, business partners, joint ventures, and partners or agents;
for employment purposes, including recruitment and supporting our employees and contractors, and for other purposes related to or in connection with our business operations, including meeting our legal and contractual obligations to third parties and for internal corporate governance purposes;
to third parties engaged by us to provide products or services or to undertake functions or activities on our behalf. For example, processing payment information, managing databases, marketing, research and advertising; or who are our external advisers, e.g. where disclosure is reasonably required to obtain advice, prepare legal proceedings or investigate suspected unlawful activity or serious misconduct;
other purposes where you consent to the use or disclosure; and
where required or authorised by law.

Marketing Use and Disclosure
LV may use and disclose individuals’ Personal Information (other than sensitive information) to provide them with information about our products and services that we consider to be of interest to them.

Individuals may contact us if they wish to opt out of receiving further marketing offers via email or otherwise. Direct marketing offers will contain an opportunity to opt out from receiving further communications of this nature.

You may unsubscribe from our mailing/marketing lists anytime by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the email footer or by contacting our Privacy Officer in writing:

By post:
Privacy Officer
Landscaping Victoria
Sector Offices
Suite 7, Level 3
2 Brandon Park Drive
WHEELERS HILL VIC 3150

By email:
admin@landscapingvictoria.com.au

Overseas Disclosure
LV is unlikely to disclose Personal Information to overseas recipients unless it is necessary to provide that information as part of travel or delegate attendance at international events, meetings, or conferences.

Any overseas disclosure does not affect our commitment to safeguarding your Personal Information. Where reasonable in the circumstances, our contracts with overseas recipients oblige them to comply with the APPs and the Act. However, individuals acknowledge that, in agreeing to the disclosure of their information to overseas recipients, we will no longer be required to take reasonable steps to ensure overseas recipients’ compliance with the APPs in relation to the individual’s information.

We will not be liable to the individual for breach of the APPs by those overseas recipients. On this basis, individuals consent to such disclosure when supplying their personal information to LV.

Maintaining the Quality of your Personal Information
It is important to us that your Personal Information is up to date. We will take reasonable steps to ensure that it is accurate, complete, and up-to-date. We rely on individuals to advise us of any changes or corrections to their Personal Information held by us.

If you find that the information we have is not up to date, inaccurate, or incomplete, please advise us as soon as practicable so we can update our records and ensure we can continue to provide quality services to you.

Security of Personal Information
Your Personal Information is stored in a manner that reasonably protects it from misuse, loss, and unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure.

We use various physical and electronic security measures, including restricting physical access to our offices, firewalls, appropriate encryption, and secure databases.

When your Personal Information is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was obtained, we will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify it. However, most Personal Information is or will be stored in client files, which we will keep for a minimum of seven years.

Access to your Personal Information
An individual may contact us to access their Personal Information. We will respond to such requests within a reasonable period after the request is made. However, there are occasions when this access may be denied under the exemptions contained in the Privacy Act. If we deny access in some circumstances, we will provide the reasons to the individual.

No fee applies to request access to the information we hold about individuals. However, LV reserves the right to charge a reasonable fee when we provide access.

In order to protect your Personal Information we may require identification from you before releasing the requested information.

You can request access to your Personal Information:

By post:
Privacy Officer
Landscaping Victoria
Sector Offices
Suite 7, Level 3
2 Brandon Park Drive
WHEELERS HILL VIC 3150

By email:
admin@landscapingvictoria.com.au

Policy Updates
This Policy is available on request. We reserve the right to revise this Privacy Policy or any part of it from time to time. Please review this Policy periodically for changes. Any revised policy will be placed on our website at www.landscapingvictoria.com.au

An individual’s continued use of our website, products, or services, request for our assistance, or provision of further personal information to us after this Privacy Policy has been revised constitutes the individual’s acceptance of the revised Privacy Policy.

Last updated: 28 March 2024

Privacy Policy Complaints and Enquiries

An individual may contact us to complain about a breach of this Privacy Policy or the APPs.

LV will handle all complaints promptly and professionally by referring the matter internally to the Privacy Officer. LV will endeavour to remedy any breaches of this Privacy Policy or the APPs and put procedures in place to ensure they are not repeated.

If the complainant is not satisfied with how LV has handled a complaint, they can make a further complaint to the Office of the Australian Privacy Commissioner.

You can contact us:

By post:
Privacy Officer
Landscaping Victoria
Sector Offices
Suite 7, Level 3
2 Brandon Park Drive
WHEELERS HILL VIC 3150

By email:
admin@landscapingvictoria.com.au