General

The Electoral and Referendum Regulations 1940 provide for the supply of elector information for use in:

• the conduct of medical research in accordance with the ‘Guidelines Under Section 95 of the Privacy Act 1988’, issued by the National Health and Medical Research Council in March 2000; or
• the provision of a public health screening program:
• approved by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Aged Care, and
• conducted in accordance with the Guidelines for the Conduct of Public Health Screening Programs with particular reference to Privacy and the Management of Personal Information issued by the Department of Health, Housing, Local Government and Community Services on 1 December 1993.

You will be asked to forward a copy of the appropriate approval to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC). However, it should be noted that the final decision regarding release of elector information rests with the AEC, even when the study has received the appropriate approval. The AEC may seek further details concerning your study in order to satisfy itself in relation to the appropriateness of the release of elector information. The AEC may also seek the advice of the Privacy Commissioner.

The Federal Privacy Handbook issued by the Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner defines medical research as ‘systematic investigations for the purpose of adding to generalised medical knowledge pertaining to human health and includes epidemiological research’. This is the definition applied by the AEC in making decisions regarding disclosure of elector information.

Under provisions of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918, the AEC can provide elector name, address, gender and age-range information for use in medical research and public health screening programs. Please note that whilst age-range information can be provided in a minimum of two-year spans, the AEC would normally only provide it in five or ten year spans. If age-range spans of less than five years are required, justification will need to be provided.

Format

The format and type of extraction can be discussed with the AEC's Roll Products and Services Unit on (02) 6271 4666, or by email rps@aec.gov.au. Formal approval of your request will still be required before any processing can commence.

Media

The AEC provides data on CD-ROM. If this does not suit your needs, please contact Roll Products and Services Unit on (02) 6271 4666, or by email rps@aec.gov.au to discuss alternative media options.

Extract Types

The following extracts are taken from the most recent backup file of the AEC’s Roll Management System. Please contact the Roll Products and Services Unit for information regarding the latest backup.

There are two types of extracts available:

• EX02 Elector Extract by Age Ranges contains details of electors in a minimum of 2 year age ranges by Federal Division. The extract may include electors from all Federal Divisions or from nominated Federal Divisions within a State or Territory.
• EX03 Random Elector Extraction provides a basic random sample of electors from a State or Territory or from a range of federal divisions. Sample size, age range and gender may be nominated.

Data Format

There are two standard choices of data format that affect the addresses in the data supplied:

• Formatted addresses - contains address as four lines of text, pre-formatted into a form suitable for printing directly onto an envelope or mailing label; or
• Unformatted addresses - contains individual data items for each piece of the address and it is left up to the user to format them for use. This format is not suitable for printing directly onto an envelope or mailing label.
  

Cost

An estimate of the processing costs will be provided, on request, at the time we receive the details of your request.

Conditions

Before we provide any elector information, an agreement protecting the data from unauthorised use must be signed by the person in charge of the study and returned to the AEC

Timings

The AEC will endeavour to fill requests as soon as possible. However, the AEC gives priority to its core business. Consequently, the AEC is unable to guarantee the supply of an extract by a specified date.

Payment

The AEC will forward an invoice with the data.