Telstra Health Pty Ltd (Telstra Health) has been engaged by the Commonwealth Department of Social Services to provide support services to people who are or have been experiencing domestic, family and sexual violence, including workplace sexual harassment, via the 1800RESPECT service.
The service can support people looking for information or trying to help someone else dealing with violence or abuse.
The service includes:
(collectively, the "Services").
The use of the Services by a person ("you") is subject to these terms of service. These terms of service contain important information, including warranty disclaimers and limitations of liability. Your use of the Services constitutes acceptance of these terms of service.
The material on this website and provided during your interaction(s) with the Services is for general information purposes only and should not be regarded as advice, including legal or medical advice.
Subject to the consumer guarantees provided for in consumer protection legislation (including the Australian Consumer Law), Telstra Health and 1800RESPECT do not give any express or implied warranties and make no representations in relation to the Services including availability, quality, completeness, accuracy, suitability, acceptability or fitness for purpose (including, in relation to the website, the content, all links to or from the website and the goods and services advertised or accessible on the website).
Information obtained from the Services should not be used without validating that the information is from appropriate sources and obtaining professional advice where it is prudent to do so. You should make and rely upon your own assessments and enquiries to verify the accuracy of the information provided.
In addition, subject to the consumer guarantees provided for in consumer protection legislation (including the Australian Consumer Law), Telstra Health does not warrant that the Services are free from any computer viruses or other defects or that your access to any Service will be continuous or uninterrupted.
Subject to the consumer guarantees provided for in consumer protection legislation (including the Australian Consumer Law), Telstra Health and 1800RESPECT exclude all liability for any loss, damage, claim, cost or expense whatsoever arising out of or in connection with these terms, the Services, all links to or from the Services and the goods and services advertised or accessible on the Services.
This website may contain links to other websites. Telstra Health provides those links as a ready reference for searching for third party goods and services on the internet and not as an endorsement of those websites, their operators, the goods, services or content that they describe.
Websites which are linked to this website are not covered by these terms of service and may have their own terms and conditions and privacy policy. If you choose to access these linked sites, you do so at your own risk. Telstra Health is not responsible for and will not be liable in respect of the content or operation of those websites or any of the goods, services or content that they describe. Telstra Health is not responsible for and will not be liable in respect of any incorrect link to an external website.
Telstra Health and 1800RESPECT do not warrant that you will have continuous access to the Services. Telstra Health and 1800RESPECT will not be liable in the event that the Services are unavailable to you due to computer downtime attributable to malfunctions, upgrades, preventative or remedial maintenance activities or interruption in telecommunications supply.
If online Services are unavailable, you may access support services by calling 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732.
Telstra Health does not guarantee the delivery of communications over the internet or telecommunications networks, as such communications rely on third party service providers. Electronic communication (including electronic mail) is vulnerable to interception by third parties and Telstra Health does not guarantee the security or confidentiality of these communications or the security of the Services. Information transmitted via internet or telecommunications services including text (SMS) may also travel overseas via third party carriers or network service providers.
Telstra Health does not provide, and has no control over, communication, networks or services, the internet or other technology used or required to access the Services and accepts no responsibility for any direct or indirect loss in any form associated with them, whether due to congestion, technical malfunction, viruses or otherwise. Whilst 1800RESPECT offers a toll-free service for calls from certain phone numbers, you may incur charges from your telecommunications provider as a result of accessing the Services (including charges associated with text (SMS) or internet access, or for calls from some phone numbers) and Telstra Health is not responsible for such charges.
Any personal information submitted to the Service will be handled in accordance with 1800RESPECT's Privacy Statement.
The Privacy Statement forms part of these terms of service and is set out here.
All intellectual property rights, including copyright and patents, in the Services, Telstra Health's goods and services, and all components of them are owned by Telstra Health or any of its related entities, or licensed from the Department of Social Services or other third parties to Telstra Health. You must not copy, modify or transmit any part of the Services without Telstra Health's written consent.
This website contains trademarks, logos, service names, trade names of Telstra Health or third parties which may be registered or otherwise protected by law. You are not permitted to use any trademarks, logos, service names or trade names appearing on this website without our consent.
Telstra Health grants you a non-exclusive and non-transferable licence to use the information on this website for your own personal use subject to the restrictions specified in clause 9. You may not download (other than page caching) or modify this website or any portion of this website.
In using the Services you must not:
Telstra Health may at any time immediately terminate your access (including restricting access) to the Services or any feature of the Services for any reason (including due to your breach or alleged breach of these terms of service) in its sole discretion and without prior notice. Any limitations of our liability survive such termination.
These terms of service are governed by and must be construed in accordance with the laws of the Australian Capital Territory. You submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of that State and the Commonwealth of Australia in respect of all matters arising out of or relating to these terms of service, their performance and subject matter.
Each provision of these terms of service is severable from the others and severance of a provision will not affect any other provision.
The Services are subject to change at any time without notice and may contain errors.
Telstra Health may from time-to-time review and update these terms of service to at any time in its discretion, including for example, to take account of new laws, regulations, products or technology or to reflect revisions to the Services. Your use of the Services will be governed by the most recent terms of service posted on this website. By continuing to use the Services, you agree to be bound by the most recent terms of service. It is your responsibility to check this website regularly for updated versions of these terms of service.
Counselling services may be provided by Telstra Health, DV Connect or other not-for-profit subcontractors.
In accessing the counselling services:
If your web browser is set up to accept cookies, a cookie may be stored on your system when you visit the Services. Cookies allow Telstra Health to distinguish unique visitors and control the flow of pages within the site. Your activity on this site will be logged, which will include the IP address of your system (a unique number assigned to your computer system or location when you connect via an Internet Service Provider). If you would rather not have this information stored on your computer, you can configure your browser so it does not accept cookies. However, if you disable cookies, you may not be able to properly use the online support services.
If you have questions about the Services, these terms of service or the 1800RESPECT Privacy Statement, please contact us at 1800respectenquiries@health.telstra.com.
Telstra Health (which may be referred to as "we" or "our" in this collection statement) complies with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) to ensure that your personal information is protected. Our contact details are available at www.1800respect.org.au/contact-us
We will only collect and use your personal information to:
Wherever possible, we will try to collect personal information from you directly, rather than from another person or source, unless it is unreasonable or impractical to do so.There may be occasions when we gather personal information about you from a third party, for example, from our IT or telecommunications provider, or from a person you have authorised to deal with us on your behalf.
Generally, personal information that is collected in connection with the Service may be shared between Telstra Health, the Department of Social Services and with contractors and service providers engaged to provide the Service.
We only disclose your personal information to third parties for the purposes for which you gave it to us or for a secondary purpose if permitted by law, which includes:
You will have the option of using the Services without disclosing your personal information if you wish. However, if you do not provide the personal information requested of you to us, we may not be able to provide you with all of the advice, support and referrals that we would otherwise be able to.
We will otherwise collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information in accordance with the 1800RESPECT privacy statement, available at www.1800RESPECT.org.au/privacy, which sets out how you may access and correct the personal information that we hold about you and how to lodge a complaint relating to our treatment of your personal information.
We are 1800RESPECT, the National Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Counselling Service (Service), which has been funded since 2010 as part of the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022. On 17 October 2022, the Australian, state and territory governments released the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032 (the National Plan) which builds on the previous plan.
The Service is delivered by Telstra Health Pty Ltd ABN 38 163 077 236 (Telstra Health), a subsidiary of Telstra Corporation Limited, on behalf of the Commonwealth of Australia through the Department of Social Services. In this Privacy Statement, references to 'us', 'we' and 'our' include the Department of Social Services, Telstra Health and any other contractors and service providers engaged in delivering the Service.
We are committed to protecting your privacy. Where you provide us with personal information (that is, information about you or another person where you or that other person is identifiable) or where you have authorised another person to provide us with personal information, this information will be handled carefully and will be collected, used, stored and disclosed in a manner consistent with the Privacy Act 1988 (Privacy Act).
This Privacy Statement provides specific information about the information-handling that occurs in respect of the Service, however should be read alongside each participating organisation or agency's Privacy Policy — for links to those Privacy Policies, please see the section of this statement titled 'Where can you get more information about our privacy practices' below.
The personal information we collect generally depends on the way in which you engage with the Service and what you provide us with.
Service users:
If you are a service user, you can use the Service confidentially or by using a pseudonym (that is, a fake name). However, it may not always be possible to provide you with all aspects of the Service confidentially or through using a pseudonym. Where it is impracticable for the Service to be provided confidentially or through the use of a pseudonym, or you elect to not use a pseudonym, personal information, call information and/or telecommunications data may be used to help us effectively manage the Service and to help provide you with quality care that meets your needs.
In such circumstances, the types of personal information we may collect can include:
We may also collect sensitive information including health information about you, such as your racial or ethnic origin, or your medical history or description of current medical issues.
Other individuals:
If you are a frontline worker or professional who supports people experiencing violence and abuse, we may also collect the following personal information:
Wherever possible, we will try to collect personal information from you directly, rather than from another person or source, unless it is unreasonable or impractical to do so.
As described above, there may be occasions when we gather personal information about you from a third party, for example, from our IT or telecommunications provider, or from a person you have authorised to deal with us on your behalf.
The typical ways in which we may collect your personal information include if you:
We record calls made to the Service for quality assurance and training purposes. In most circumstances, you can choose not to have your call recorded by informing us of this choice. All video calls are recorded so, if you do not wish for your call to be recorded, please contact us by telephone instead and request that your call is not recorded. Both voice and video calls may also be monitored for quality and training purposes.
If you contact us online via the ‘chat’ option or by text (SMS), we keep a transcript or record of the chat or text interaction to help us improve our service. If you do not want a transcript to be kept, you can tell the counsellor who interacts with you. If you contact us via the text option, your phone number, which we need in order to communicate with you via text, will be retained and archived.
We collect and use the above types of personal information (which may include your sensitive and health information) to enable us to provide the Service and to meet our legal obligations.
For example:
In general, we use and disclose service user's personal information to:
If you are a frontline worker or professional who supports people experiencing violence and abuse, we may use your personal information to:
We may use de-identified and aggregated information (where no one is identifiable) to improve the 1800RESPECT service, for reports and in evaluation of the Service and its various elements. De-identified information can also be used in academic articles and presentations at conferences.
Generally, personal information that is collected in connection with the Service may be shared between Telstra Health, the Department of Social Services and with contractors and service providers engaged to provide the Service (collectively, Contracted Service Providers). In this regard, it is noted that:
We only disclose your personal information to third parties for the purposes for which you gave it to us or for a secondary purpose if permitted by law, which includes:
De-identified information (where no one is identifiable) may also be shared with research partners from time to time.
We will not discolve any of your information to any overseas recipients other than overseas emergency or law enforcement services where this is required.
You can request to access or correct personal information we hold about you, please contact us by emailing 1800respectenquiries@health.telstra.com.
Information we collect from you as part of the Service will be retained in accordance with statutory requirements.
You can also use the above email address to contact us with a privacy query or complaint. We hope to resolve any complaints without needing to involve third parties, but you may also be able to lodge a complaint with a relevant regulator such as the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (www.oaic.gov.au or 1300 363 992).
Before we disclose or share any personal information with you, we will require you to sufficiently verify your identity and provide further information (including by completing a prescribed form). If you do not provide the information requested, we may not be able to process your request.
We will aim to assess all requests for access or correction within 30 days and will provide our response (along with any reasons) in writing.
We take reasonable steps to ensure the security of all information we collect, including that the information is protected from unauthorised access, loss, modification or disclosure. For example, your personal information is maintained in a secure environment, which can be accessed only by authorised personnel.
We hold your information in accordance with the Archives Act 1983 (Cth), and take reasonable steps to make sure that the personal information we collect, use and disclose is accurate, complete, up-to-date and relevant.
However, the transfer of information over wireless networks and the internet is not inherently secure. We cannot guarantee the security, during transmission, of any personal information provided to us via our website or services; please bear this in mind when transmitting information by this means to us. Information transmitted via internet or telecommunications services including text (SMS) may also travel overseas via third party carriers or network service providers.
Our respective Privacy Policies also contain more information about each participating organisation and agency's privacy practices, including how you may request access to, or correction of, personal information that a specific entity may hold about you, how you can lodge a privacy complaint and how we manage such complaints. Whether your personal information has been collected by one of the below organisations or agencies will depend on which service you have used. If you would like more information, please contact us by emailing 1800respectenquiries@health.telstra.com.
You can obtain the latest version of our Privacy Policies by visiting our websites below:
This Privacy Statement is current as at November 2023 and may be updated from time to time.
Please consult this page regularly for any changes to the Privacy Statement.
When you interact with our site, we strive to make your experience easy and meaningful. We, or our third party service providers, may use cookies and similar technologies to track site visitor activity and collect site data. Examples of information that we may collect includes technical information such as your computer's IP address and your browser type, and information about your visit such as the products you viewed or searched for, the country you are in, what you clicked on and what links you visited to get to or from our site.
If we identify you with this information, any use or disclosure of that information will be in accordance with this Privacy Statement and applicable privacy laws.
A cookie is a text file that a website transfers to your computer's hard drive for record-keeping purposes. Cookies help us gather and store information about visitors to our websites and are intended to improve your website browsing experience whilst visiting. Our cookies assign a random, unique number to each visitor's computer. They do not contain information that would personally identify the visitor, although we can associate a cookie with any identifying information that is or has been provided by a customer while visiting our site.
We, or our third party service providers, use cookies that remain on your computer for a specified period of time or until they are deleted (persistent cookies). These cookies record clickstream information (data reporting the URLs, or names of the pages, on our site that have been visited). We may also use cookies that exist only temporarily during an online session (session cookies) — these cookies allow you to log in to your account and they allow us to identify you temporarily as you move through the site. Most browsers allow users to refuse cookies, but doing so may impede the functionality of some portions of our site.
We may also engage third parties, such as Google Analytics, to track and analyse site activity on our behalf. To do so, these third parties may place cookies or web beacons to track user activity on our site. The information generated by these cookies (including your truncated IP address) is transmitted to and stored by Google, and other third party providers, on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your, and other users' use of our website, mobile website, compiling reports for us on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage.
We use the data collected by such third parties to help us administer, report on and improve the quality of the site and to analyse usage of the site.
We recommend viewing the site in private browser or incognito mode. For more information on device and online safety, including using this site, visit our Technology and Safety section.