About these terms
These terms of use apply to this website. By using the site you accept them. They sit alongside the party's national Conditions of Use, which apply to this site as well, and our privacy policy, which explains how we handle personal information. If you don't agree with these terms, please don't use the site.
Who we are
This website is operated by the Australian Democrats (Victoria), a division of the Australian Democrats, a registered political party. References to "we", "us" and "our" are references to the Australian Democrats.
The national Conditions of Use apply here too
This site runs on a subdomain of democrats.org.au. The party's national Conditions of Use state that by accessing or using the Australian Democrats website, any subdomain of democrats.org.au, or any affiliated online service the party operates, you agree to them — so they apply to this Victorian site by their own terms.
Read them at democrats.org.au/conditions-of-use. The terms on this page are read together with them, and add the Victorian detail; they do not replace them.
Using this site
You're welcome to browse the site, read and share our policies, download our how-to-vote materials for personal and campaign use, and use our forms to join, donate, volunteer or contact us. You agree to use the site lawfully and honestly: don't misuse the forms, submit information that is false or misleading, attempt to interfere with the site's operation or security, or use automated tools to scrape or overload it.
Your content and information
When you submit information through the site — an application, a donation, a message, a sign-up — you confirm it is accurate and yours to give. Personal information you provide is handled as described in our privacy policy. Membership applications are subject to approval under the party's constitution; if an application is not successful, any fees paid will be refunded in full.
Payments and donations
Payments on this site are processed by Stripe on its secure hosted pages — your card details never touch this website. Donations must comply with Victorian and Commonwealth electoral funding and disclosure laws; by donating you confirm you are eligible to do so. Donations are generally not refundable, but if you believe a payment was made in error, contact us and we will consider it in good faith.
Our content and intellectual property
What this section is for. These intellectual-property terms exist for one purpose: to protect the property the Australian Democrats actually own — our brand, our designs and our original work (our "Party Assets") — and to stop that property being copied, stolen or passed off as someone else's. They are not intended to limit anyone's freedom to talk about, question or criticise us. We support freedom of speech and expression, and nothing in these terms takes that away.
What we own (the "Party Assets"). Except for the third-party material described below, all material on the site — including its visual design and design system, page layouts, source code, markup, stylesheets, scripts, interactive experiences and games, graphics, icons, illustrations, our own photographs, videos, wordmarks, logos and trade marks, and the selection and arrangement of all of the above (together, the "Party Assets") — is owned by, or exclusively licensed to, the Australian Democrats. All rights in the Party Assets are reserved.
Preventing theft and passing-off. So that the Party Assets are not stolen, misappropriated or used to mislead, you must not — and must not assist, procure or permit any other person to — without our express prior written permission, signed by an authorised officer of the party:
- copy, reproduce, republish, redistribute, sell or commercially exploit the Party Assets as your own, or strip, alter or obscure our identifying marks;
- adapt, reverse-engineer, decompile or create competing derivative works from our original designs, components, themes or code;
- scrape, harvest, mirror, frame or systematically extract the Party Assets, whether manually or by automated means (including to train machine-learning models); or
- use the Party Assets — or any confusingly similar imitation of them — in a way that steals our work or trades on our reputation.
Your freedom to analyse and criticise is not affected. Nothing in these terms restricts, and we do not seek to restrict, your right to read, quote, link to, report on, discuss, analyse, fact-check, comment on, satirise or criticise the Australian Democrats, our policies, our representatives or our public statements. Genuine criticism, review, parody, satire, news reporting, and other fair-dealing uses and uses protected by the implied freedom of political communication recognised under Australian law, are expressly preserved. Robust debate about a political party is a feature of a healthy democracy, not a breach of these terms.
Material we publish for you to use. Some material is here precisely so that you can use it — our how-to-vote cards, for example, are published to be downloaded, printed and handed out. Where this site expressly invites you to download or share something, that permission stands, and this section does not withdraw it. Don't reproduce electoral material in ways that breach electoral law.
Enforcement. We take theft and misappropriation of the Party Assets seriously and will enforce our rights in them — including under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), the Trade Marks Act 1995 (Cth) and the Australian Consumer Law — to the fullest extent available. Requests for permission to use the Party Assets can be made through our contact page. Permission, if given, applies only to what is expressly stated in writing, and may be withdrawn at any time.
Using our name and logos
Journalists, commentators, researchers and members of the public may use our name and logos to the extent reasonably necessary to report on, refer to or comment on the Australian Democrats — for example, to illustrate a news story, review or opinion piece about us. What is not permitted is using our name, logos or branding to represent yourself as the Australian Democrats, or to suggest falsely that you are us, or that you are authorised, endorsed by, or affiliated with us, when you are not. Approved logo files, and guidance on their correct use, are available in our media centre.
Third-party and openly-licensed material
Some images and other material on the site are not owned by us but are supplied by third parties and used by us under an open or public licence (for example, a Creative Commons or similar licence). Where an item is verifiably owned by a third party and made available under such a licence, that licence — and not the section above — governs that item. Nothing in these terms purports to claim ownership of that third-party material, to grant us any rights beyond what its licence gives us, or to reduce, revoke or interfere with the rights that the open licence gives you, or anyone else, in that material. The reservation of rights above applies only to the Party Assets — the material we own or exclusively licence — and not to third-party material used under an open licence, which remains subject to its own terms, including any attribution requirements.
Links to other sites
The site links to third-party services and websites (for example, the AEC and VEC, social media platforms, and our payment processor). We link to them in good faith, but we don't control them and aren't responsible for their content or how they handle your information.
Accuracy and availability
We work to keep the site accurate and current, but content is provided for general information and may change — policies get refined, events get rescheduled, numbers get updated. We don't promise the site will be uninterrupted or error-free, and we may change, suspend or remove parts of it at any time.
Liability
To the extent permitted by law, we exclude liability for loss arising from your use of, or reliance on, this site. Nothing in these terms excludes rights or guarantees that cannot be excluded under Australian law, including the Australian Consumer Law.
Changes to these terms
We may update these terms from time to time. The current version will always be published on this page, and continued use of the site after a change means you accept the updated terms.
Contact
If you have a question about these terms — including a request for written permission to use any material — get in touch through our contact page, or via democrats.org.au.