Social media usage and policies

The Department of Education (the department) uses social media to engage and develop active relationships with stakeholders and gain a better understanding of stakeholder attitudes.

On this page:

The department uses social media to:

  • engage with stakeholders using familiar and widespread technology;
  • develop a more active relationship with stakeholders and gain a better understanding of their attitudes;
  • increase the speed and frequency of public engagement;
  • increase public trust through greater transparency;
  • improve the delivery and support of services, particularly to rural and remote communities;
  • counter inaccurate press coverage;
  • facilitate innovation through collaboration with third parties and industry experts;
  • foster organisational and individual development through the open exchange of information, perspective and opinion; and
  • promote and market departmental activities to the community.

Official departmental social media presences

Australian Training Awards

Responding to enquiries

Where possible the department will endeavour to respond to questions posted to departmental social media accounts.

Departmental social media accounts are monitored during standard business hours (Monday-Friday 9am -5pm AEST).

The content of your contributions are, and will be, treated by the department as non-confidential, public information.

If you seek a formal response from us on a particular matter, please contact the department by phone or using our online contact form.

Terms of Use

The following standard Terms of Use apply to interacting with or participation on departmental social media channels.

These terms should be read in addition to any policies or terms and conditions imposed by the social media sites.

You should familiarise yourself with these Terms of Use before contributing.

Acceptable Use Policy

You must agree to and abide by the Acceptable Use Policy when contributing your views on any of our social media channels. In making your contribution, you agree that you will not take any of the following actions:

  • Impersonate any person or entity, or falsely state or misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity. Making false, misleading or deceptive representations that you are another person or character can amount to a criminal offence and give rise to civil liability;
  • Abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate the legal rights of others;
  • Post any misleading, deceptive, false, defamatory or libellous content;
  • Post insulting, threatening or provocative language, or language that is hateful towards a certain group of people;
  • Post content to incite hatred on the basis of race, religion, gender, nationality or sexuality or other personal characteristics;
  • Post inappropriate, profane, defamatory, obscene or indecent content;
  • To conduct any illegal activity or solicit the performance of any illegal activity;
  • To contribute any text or other material that infringes the intellectual property rights of others;
  • Spam your contribution to the site by sending multiple copies or versions of it;
  • Advertise or offer to sell any goods or services for any commercial purpose unless you have our written consent to do so; and
  • Post off-topic, or irrelevant contributions not in keeping with the current topics or themes.

In addition you agree that you will not use our channels to:

  • Post personal website addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers or any other personally identifiable information; and
  • Collect or store personal information of any other person or group.

The Department of Education, Skills and Employment reserves the right to:

  • Restrict, suspend or terminate your access to post on our channels, if you are in breach of these Terms of Use;
  • Moderate (including deleting and/or editing) any material that you post for breaching these Terms of Use.

The moderation process

Where it is supported, the department may implement a moderation process to screen contributions before they are published. When you submit a contribution it may be checked against the rules for all contributors then, if approved, posted to the site.

Your contribution may be removed after it is published if information comes to hand which raises doubts about whether you have complied with the Terms of Use. Other users of the site may report your contribution to the moderator for checking.

If your contribution breaches these Terms of Use, we will endeavour to contact you informing you of the reason for the breach.

The Terms of Use may be modified at any time. If you continue to use the site following any modification of the Terms of Use, you will be considered to have accepted the modified Terms of Use.

Intellectual Property

You accept full responsibility for ensuring that in making your contribution your intellectual property rights are not lost or diminished. This is for your own protection.

The department does not warrant that any material or information you contribute will be protected against loss, misuse or alteration by third parties. In particular, the department does not warrant that you will not suffer loss or diminution of any intellectual property rights you currently own or may be able to obtain in relation to any material or information that you contribute.

If your contribution includes material in which the copyright is owned by another person or entity, you warrant that you have obtained all necessary permissions, authorisations, licences and consents required for the use of such materials and have made arrangements for the payment of any royalties or other fees payable in respect of the use of such material.

You agree to indemnify the department against any loss, liability, claim, demand, damage or expense (including legal fees) asserted by an third party (including yourself) arising out of a breach of the warranty referred to above or of these terms and conditions.

You grant the department a royalty-free and irrevocable licence to do any act comprised in the copyright (including reproducing, publishing, performing or communicating to the public) in relation to the stories, material or information you contribute.

Disclaimer

The information provided through our social media accounts is presented by the department for the purpose of disseminating information for the benefit of the public.

However, the department does not make any representation or warranty about the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of any material provided via these accounts. Please see our Disclaimer for more details.

Privacy

For more information about how we protect your privacy and personal information, please see our Privacy Statement.

Contact

For further enquiries regarding the department's use of social media, please contact 1300 488 064 or refer to the contact the department page.