Terms and Conditions

The ALRC website, its forums and blogs are managed by the ALRC.

You agree to use the ALRC website only for lawful purposes and in a manner that does not infringe the rights of or restrict or inhibit the use and enjoyment of any third party. This includes: conduct which is unlawful or which may harass or cause distress or inconvenience to any person; the transmission of obscene or offensive content; or disruption to ALRC blogs and forums. You must not post or transmit to ALRC blogs or forums any unlawful, defamatory, obscene, offensive or scandalous material, or any material that constitutes or encourages conduct that would contravene any law.

Making comments and contributing to forums and blogs on the ALRC website

The ALRC website, forums and blogs do, in most instances, allow pseudonymous participation. If you have logged in to the website before contributing comments, any comments you make will appear under the “Username” you selected when initially creating your account.

If a Username is deemed to be offensive, inflammatory, controversial or otherwise inappropriate, the username and comments will not be posted.

All forum and blog comments are subject to moderation by the Australian Law Reform Commission and its appointed representatives, so publication of comments may not be immediate.

The purpose of moderation is to ensure that the discussion remains on topic, does not include offensive or discriminatory language and that no person’s privacy or security is breached.

Moderation policy

The ALRC welcomes your participation in its various online consultations. To ensure that your contributions meets legal requirements and the discussion stays on track, all comments posted to the blog will be moderated by the ALRC before publication, according to the Protocols for Participation.

Comments that do not comply with the Protocols below may be redacted or deleted.

Users of the website acknowledge there will be a delay to allow moderation and that publication of comments will not be immediate. The ALRC undertakes to moderate all comments within 1 hour of receipt, during work hours.

During moderation, comments are kept in a secure database accessed only by the ALRC and its appointed representatives.

Protocols for participation

The intent of the Protocols for Participation is to create a positive environment where people are able to publicly contribute their views to the blog, in the spirit of promoting respectful relationships, without fear of abuse or harassment or exposure to offensive or otherwise inappropriate content and protecting the operators of the consultation forum from legal liability.

Commenting in ALRC forums and blogs is like having a conversation or speaking at a physical meeting, so normal social conventions apply. Help us to keep the conversation on topic by being polite, constructive and respectful of others.

By contributing to ALRC forums and blogs, you:

  • give permission for your comments to be posted on the site (see Privacy Statement) and affirm that your comments represent your own work and do not infringe on the copyright of any other individual or organisation
  • acknowledge that your comments will be subject to moderation by ALRC moderators before publication and therefore the publication of comments will not be immediate
  • acknowledge and give permission for your comments to be used, without personal identification, by the ALRC for any purpose
  • acknowledge that comments that contain images, hyperlinks, audio or video will not be published, irrespective of content
  • acknowledge all material on this site is subject to copyright. For more information, view the Copyright Notice.

When contributing your views to ALRC forums and blogs, you will ensure that you:

  • do protect your personal privacy and that of others by not including personal information about yourself or others in your comments (such as names, email addresses, private addresses or phone numbers)
  • do post material to the forum that is relevant to the issues being consulted on
  • do represent your own views and do not impersonate or falsely represent any other person
  • do not abuse, harass or threaten others
  • do not post anything which:
    • racially or religiously vilifies others,
    • incites, induces or aids violence, discrimination, harassment, victimisation or hatred towards others, or
    • is likely to offend, insult or humiliate others, particularly on the basis of their race, colour, descent, national origin, religion, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation or any disability
  • do not make defamatory or libellous comments
  • do not use insulting, provocative or hateful language
  • do not use obscene or offensive language
  • do not post material to the forum that infringes the intellectual property rights of others
  • do not post multiple versions of the same view to the forum
  • do not promote commercial interests in your posts to the forum
  • do not include internet addresses, videos, images or any email addresses, in your contribution
  • do not post comments promoting personal professional interests
  • do not post overtly party political comment (e.g. reference to candidates, fundraisers, support for political parties) and
  • do not incite, encourage or make reference to conduct that may constitute a criminal or civil offence or otherwise violate Australian law.

As a general rule comments and posts will not be edited, particularly not for spelling or grammatical errors, nor for quality of thought or argument. Posts will only be edited to protect the privacy of an individual or organisation and/or to protect from potential defamation, in which case a name or comment may be removed by the moderator and replaced with an ellipsis: ‘… Comments and posts that do not comply with the protocols in other ways may not be published.

Disclaimer

Material on this site is made available on the understanding that the ALRC is not providing professional advice. Before relying on any of the material on this site, users should obtain appropriate professional advice.

Views and recommendations of third parties, which may also be included on this site, do not necessarily reflect the views of the ALRC, or indicate a commitment to a particular course of action.

Links to other Internet sites are for your convenience. These links do not constitute endorsement of material at those sites, or any associated organisation, product or service.

The ALRC takes reasonable care in linking to other websites but has no direct control over the content presented in those websites or the availability of those the websites.

The ALRC does not endorse or recommend any links to external websites or third party content. The ALRC makes no representation that the material on any linked websites does not infringe the intellectual property rights or any other rights of any person. The ALRC does not authorise the reproduction of such material.

The ALRC may revise these Terms of Use from time to time. Please contact us if you have any questions, problems or feedback regarding the ALRC website.