Privacy Policy

St Mary of the Presentation Catholic Parish Mudgee is part of the Catholic Diocese of Bathurst and adopts the Catholic Diocese of Bathurst Privacy Policy below.

Catholic Diocese of Bathurst
Privacy Policy

The Catholic Diocese of Bathurst and its parishes, agencies, organisations and ministries (including but not limited to Centacare, Diocese of Bathurst and the Catholic Development Fund, Diocese of Bathurst) (referred to as "we", "our" and "us" in this document) are committed to protecting your personal information.  Reference to our website includes the websites of any of the parishes, organisations or agencies within our Diocese.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully as it outlines how we collect, store and use personal information. 

We advise that this Policy does not cover the handling of personal information by our Catholic schools or Catholic Education, Diocese of Bathurst.  For information relating to the handling of personal information by our schools, please visit Catholic Education, Diocese of Bathurst website located at https://www.bth.catholic.edu.au

We may revise this Policy from time to time by publishing a revised version on our website located at https://bathurst.catholic.org.au/, taking effect from the time it is published.

The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Act) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) also apply to us in relation to how we collect, store and use your personal information.

Personal Information

Personal information is any information that can identify or be reasonably used to identify you.  We will collect and maintain in our database certain personally identifiable information from you when you provide it to us on a voluntary basis, for example, when you make an inquiry, contact us, subscribe to our newsletter or forums, establish an email account or make a payment/donation.  Typically, your personal information would include your name, address, telephone number, email, payment card details (including transaction details/history) and date of birth.

Our various parishes, activities and ministries might need to collect other kinds of personal information.  For example:

  • We may need to collect information about employment and education history, background checks, government identifiers (e.g. tax file numbers) criminal history checks and Working with Children Checks of our current, past or prospective employees and volunteers.
  • We may hold or request sacramental records, information regarding personal histories or information about religious or philosophical beliefs (e.g. as part of the process if a person requests a priest to officiate their wedding), donation history, financial information (e.g. credit card details written on a collections envelop).
  • Centacare, Diocese of Bathurst provides a range of family and community services which will require collection of certain personal information before such services can be provided, including sensitive information such as health information (e.g. health and medical history of children that are placed in Outside School Hours Care operated by Centacare), disability information and information regarding family histories and relationship with others (e.g. for family counselling services).
  • Catholic Development Fund, Diocese of Bathurst may collect financial information, carry out credit checks and collect identification documents (e.g. copies of drivers' licences and passports) before it can provide services to you.
  • Photographs, videos and news stories that may identify persons may be collected in respect of Catholic Church related events and activities.

Some of the personal information collected may be considered "sensitive information" as defined in the Privacy Act and we will take steps to ensure that such information is handled and protected as required by the Act and the APPs.

You can always choose not to provide your personal information to us, or you may just want to deal with us anonymously or by using a pseudonym. If this happens, we may not be able to provide you with the information you asked for or give you the level of service you expect.

When you look at our website, please also be aware that our Internet Service Provider makes a record of your visit and logs information about it.  This is usual practice for an Internet Service Provider. This information may include but is not limited to:

  • Your server address
  • Your top level domain name (for example .com, .gov, .au, etc)
  • The date and time of your visit to the site
  • The pages you accessed and documents downloaded
  • Previous sites you visited
  • The type of browser you are using

How we collect your information

We will only collect personal information that is reasonably necessary for one or more of our functions or activities.

We carry out a multitude of functions, services and activities for the purposes of promoting the Catholic faith within the Diocese of Bathurst.  This includes, amongst other things, serving the Catholic Church community within the Diocese, assisting and supporting parishes within the Diocese, providing services to the Church community and members of the public through our organisations and businesses (such as Centacare and the Catholic Development Fund), liaising with members of the public and carrying out ministries from time to time.

We collect personal information from individuals when it is reasonably necessary to enable us to carry out our mission, activities and ministries, which includes but is not limited to:

  • providing religious services to you and the community, including administering sacraments and pastoral care;
  • providing other services to you and the community, such as family and counselling services through Centacare;
  • providing financial services through the Catholic Development Fund;
  • providing you with information that we think you might be interested in, for example news and events held by the Diocese of Bathurst;
  • carrying out fundraising campaigns and appeals, including use of information to process donations;
  • ensuring that our activities and ministries are managed and operate to a high standard and in accordance with our policies, which includes carrying out due diligence in relation to prospective employees and volunteers and collecting personal information of our employees and volunteers as party of our day-to-day operations;
  • complying with our legal obligations;
  • providing administrative support to other Catholic Church agencies; and
  • communicating with the public who contact us with queries, comments or complaints.

We may also collect personal information for secondary purposes for which a person would reasonably expect us to use or disclose his or her personal information. 

We collect information from you in different ways. Our usual practice is to collect personal information directly from you. For example, you might send an email to us directly or through an online form on our website which will contain your personal information or you might provide your local parish priest with personal information such as your contact details.

In most cases, we require you to consent specifically to any collection, use or disclosure of your personal information by us. Your consent may be explicit, such as in writing or verbally, or may be implied by conduct. 

There are times where we collect personal information about you from a third party, i.e. where it is impracticable or unreasonable to collect directly from you or when you would reasonably expect your personal information to be collected from another source. For example, we may be given a form relating to a baptism that contains the names and religion of the parents and godparents of the child. If you provide us with personal information of a third party, you warrant to us that you have obtained consent from that person(s) for you to disclose their personal information to us and for us to collect and use their personal information per this Policy.

In the case of children, personal information will ordinarily be collected from their parents or guardians, unless specific and/or unusual circumstances require that the collection be made directly from the relevant child.

For prospective employees, we may collect personal information by speaking with referees nominated by the prospective employee. We may contact applicants' previous employers who have not been nominated as referees. Should this be the case, applicants will be advised prior to such contact being made.

Our website may use cookies to assign your computer a User ID so that we can identify your computer on our server. You may configure your web browser so that you are notified in advance so your internet browser will disable cookies. In some instances, cookies may collect and store personal information about you. Any personal information collected via the use of cookies will only be used by us in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Storage, Use and Disclosure of Personal Information

We will store and use your personal information for the purpose(s) for which it was collected (see above), for any secondary purposes directly related to that primary purpose(s), or to comply with our legal obligations. We generally do not disclose your personal information to other organisations unless we believe it is reasonably necessary to conduct the functions and activities of the Diocese, if you give your consent, or if it is required or authorised by law. 

We use a range of suppliers, service providers, contractors and other third-party partners to enable the activities and functions of the Diocese including information technology service providers and banks. 

In providing your information to us, you are consenting to the disclosure of your information to such entities outlined above without the need to obtain your consent to do so.

We may also disclose personal information to the public from time to time with either the consent of the person to which the information relates or from a third party when we are reasonably satisfied that the person to whom the information relates would consent to our use of the personal information. Examples of such use include the disclosure of the first and last names of sick persons in parish bulletins (either disclosed to us by the persons themselves or by their friends or family) and the announcement of such names during prayers of the faithful at Mass.

We may use your personal information to send you information about our work and promotional or marketing material from time to time. We may provide you with material that we believe would be of interest to you in person, by mail, phone, email, text, and online via the internet and in apps, unless you tell us not to.

We will make sure that any such emails, texts and letters that we send to you clearly tell you how to opt-out.

You can opt-out of receiving promotional or marketing material at any time by following the opt-out instructions on the materials you received or by contacting us on the details below:

Privacy Officer
Catholic Diocese of Bathurst
P.O. Box 246, Bathurst, NSW, 2795
Phone: (02) 6334-6400

Some third-party providers we use, for example, for cloud storage of electronic data, may be located outside of Australia. We otherwise will not disclose your personal information to overseas recipients without your prior consent. Before disclosing your personal information to an overseas recipient, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the recipient will not breach the APPs. We are committed to safeguarding personal information held by us and will comply with all applicable laws relating to cross-border data disclosure.

Security of Personal Information

We take reasonable steps to ensure the security of personal information, in both physical and electronic forms, by storing it in a secure environment.  Any contract service providers used will also be bound by our Privacy Policy and all employees, contractors and third-party service providers are required to comply with this Policy.

As our website is linked to the internet, and the internet is inherently insecure, we cannot provide any guarantee regarding the security of transmission of information you communicate to us online. We also cannot guarantee that the information you supply will not be intercepted whilst being transmitted over the internet. Accordingly, any personal information or other information which you transmit to us online is transmitted at your own risk.

Online Donations

Donations made online via our website (if applicable) or on any of the Dioceses’ Parish websites are processed in real time using a secure payment gateway. 

Notifiable data breaches scheme

In the event of any loss, or unauthorised access or disclosure of your personal information that is likely to result in serious harm to you, we will investigate and notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as soon as practicable, in accordance with the Act.

Access to Personal Information

We take all reasonable steps to ensure that personal information we collect, hold, use and disclose is complete, accurate, relevant and up to date.

If you would like to access or make corrections to your personal information, please contact the Privacy Officer described below. We may ask you to verify your identity before we disclose any personal information.

If you wish to have your personal information removed from our database, we will take all reasonable steps to comply with your request, unless we need to keep your information for legal, auditing or internal risk management reasons.

Complaints

We have appointed a designated Privacy Officer who is responsible for investigating any complaints or concerns any person may have about the protection of their privacy. The Privacy Officer can be contacted as follows:

Attn: Privacy Officer
Catholic Diocese of Bathurst
P.O. Box 246, BATHURST, NSW 2795
Email: (remove XX) privacy XX @bathurst XX .catholic.org.au

Once we become aware of any ongoing concerns or problems raised by you about our privacy practices, we will take these issues seriously and work to address those concerns. There is no fee associated with lodging such a complaint. Provided we have all the necessary information required to adequately investigate your complaint, we will endeavour to respond to you within 21 business days. We will contact you should we require further information.

If your complaint has not resolved to your satisfaction, you may make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (“OAIC”).  Information on how to make a complaint to the OAIC can be found at www.oaic.gov.au.  Contact details for the OAIC are:

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
SYDNEY NSW  2001
Telephone: 1300 363 992
Facsimile: (02) 9284 9666
Email: (remove XX) enquiries XX @oaic XX .gov.au

Terms of Use

By communicating with us, including using our website or the websites of any of the parishes, organisations or agencies within our Diocese, and by providing information to us, you are consenting to the collection and use of your personal information (including sensitive information) for the purpose it was intended.

This Policy was last reviewed and updated on 14 December 2020.

The Privacy Policy can be downloaded as a document HERE