Privacy and enrolment information

The register of electors contains personal enrolment information about most Victorians including name, address, date of birth and gender information. The VEC uses the information in this register to create a number of products, including rolls for particular elections. These products do not necessarily contain all of the information from the register. Protecting the privacy of this information is very important to the VEC.

If voters have confidence in the integrity of the register of electors, they will continue to register and update their personal details. They will also continue to have confidence in the electoral system generally.

The Electoral Act 2002 requires the VEC to make certain information available to stakeholders such as political parties, Members of Parliament and candidates. The Electoral Act also allows the VEC to make information available to certain individual and organisations. This may occur if, in the circumstance presented, the public interest in providing the requested information outweighs the public interest in protecting the privacy of personal information.

Individuals and organisations that have been provided with electoral enrolment information are listed below. Electors who don't want their details on the roll appearing for safety reasons may apply to register as a silent elector.

Who has access to my enrolment information?

The Electoral Act 2002 requires the VEC to make specified enrolment information available to:

The public

An electoral roll is available for inspection by members of the public at the VEC's office at level 8, 505 Little Collins Street, Melbourne, during normal business hours. The roll that is available to the public contains name and address information and can be searched by name only.

Political parties, Members of Parliament and candidates

The VEC provides lists specifying electors and their particulars to registered political parties, Members of Parliament and candidates for an election. We provide candidates with name and address information. We give registered political parties and Members of Parliament access to enrolment information that is not publicly available, including gender and date of birth.

Local councils and the Juries Commission

The VEC provides enrolment information to local councils for local council elections. We also provide enrolment information to the Juries Commission so that they can call people up for jury duty.

The Electoral Act 2002 provides that specified enrolment information may also be made available to:

Other individuals and organisations

The VEC may, on request, decide to provide other individuals and organisations with access to electoral enrolment information. In deciding whether to release the information, we consult with the Privacy Commissioner. We release the information if we consider that the public interest in providing the information outweighs the public interest in protecting the privacy of personal information. Depending on the circumstances involved, we may provide name and address information or we may provide further details including gender and date of birth.

The VEC has provided electoral enrolment information to the following organisations:

BreastScreen Victoria

The VEC has agreed to provide BreastScreen Victoria with electoral enrolment information on a quarterly basis. The VEC provides BreastScreen with the name, address, date of birth and elector identification number of all Victorian women between the ages of 50 and 69. BreastScreen may only use the information to send letters to these women, inviting them to have a free breast x-ray to test for any signs of breast cancer.

Cancer Council Victoria - PapScreen Victoria Program

The VEC has agreed to provide the Cancer Council Victoria with electoral enrolment information for the PapScreen Victoria program. The VEC has agreed to provide the Cancer Council Victoria with name, address and date of birth information of all Victorian women aged 50 to 69. The Cancer Council Victoria may only use this information to determine the appropriate recipients of an invitation to have a pap test in the immediate future.

Department of Human Services Adoption Information Service

The VEC has agreed to provide the Adoption Information Service (AIS) with electoral enrolment information on a six-monthly basis. The VEC has agreed to provide name, address, date of birth and gender information. The AIS may use the information for two purposes. The AIS may use the information to conduct searches in accordance with the Adoptions Act 1984, on behalf of adopted persons, birth parents, birth relatives and adoptive parents. The AIS may also conduct searches on behalf of other adoptions information agencies approved by the VEC.

State Revenue Office

The VEC has agreed to provide the State Revenue Office (SRO) with electoral enrolment information on a six-monthly basis. The VEC has agreed to provide the SRO with name, address and date of birth details. The SRO may use the information only for purposes directly related to its functions as a "law enforcement agency" under the provisions of the Information Privacy Act 2000.

Victoria Police

The VEC has agreed to provide certain members of Victoria Police with access to the electoral enrolment register. Victoria Police have on-line secure password access to name, address, date of birth and gender information. Access remains limited by search restrictions.

Victorian Adoption Network for Information and Self Help (VANISH)

The VEC has agreed to provide VANISH with electoral enrolment information on a request basis so that they may undertake accurate searches in cases where the identity of a birth relative cannot be confirmed from public records. This will be done with a view to contacting that person in order to seek consent to release their personal details to an adopted person.

Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages

The VEC has agreed to provide enrolment information to the Registry for the purpose of assisting the Registry’s Governance and Compliance Unit to prevent, detect and investigate fraud threats to the Registry, and initiating the prosecution of criminal offences under the relevant Act;

Infertility Treatment Authority

The VEC has agreed to provide enrolment information to ITA so that it may conduct searches on behalf of eligible parties in accordance with the Infertility Treatment Act 1995.

Women’s Health, Department of Medicine, Monash University

The VEC has agreed to provide Women’s Health with electoral information so that data matching can be undertaken to ensure that past patients in a testosterone treatment study may be contacted to complete a questionnaire relating to their medical history.

Cancer Epidemiology Centre, The Cancer Council Victoria

The VEC has agreed to provide the Cancer Epidemiology Centre, The Cancer Council Victoria with electoral enrolment information of people whose date of birth is within the range of the current participants in the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study so that it may contact participants in the study and provide them with information of research findings that may be relevant to their health.

Research School of Sciences, Australian National University

The VEC has agreed to provide the Research School of Sciences with de-identified information to be used to match date of birth with the day of the week the birth occurred. This information will be analysed to obtain information relating to any observable changes in the incidence of weekend births.

Victorian Community Wound Study (Monash University)

The VEC has agreed to provide the Victorian Community Wound Study (Monash University) with electoral enrolment information of people aged 65 years and over. The information will be provided to the Victorian Community Wound Study only so that it may contact a random population sample from this age group for the purposes of the Victorian Community Wound Study.

Enrolment information is also made available by the Australian Electoral Commission in certain circumstances. Details are available from the Australian Electoral Commission (external link).

Download the VEC's brochure Electoral Enrolment Information: Collection and Disclosure Practices (PDF, 827 KB). If you would prefer a hard copy, please contact us.