General Consent Form (Australia)

Create an Australian Waiver of Liability for activities, events, or services involving risk of injury. Participants acknowledge and accept risks and release the organiser from liability. Compliant with Australian Consumer Law limitations on exclusion clauses.

Create a comprehensive Australian Parental Consent Form for school excursions, camps, incursions, sporting events, medical activities, community programs, and other activities involving children and young people. This template is designed to comply with state education regulations, child protection legislation, the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), and the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth), and includes sections for medical information, emergency contacts, and emergency medical treatment consent. In Australia, parental consent is a legal requirement for schools and community organisations when enrolling children in activities that take place outside the school grounds, involve heightened physical risk, or require the handling of sensitive personal information such as medical conditions. The legal basis for this requirement draws on several overlapping legislative frameworks. State education legislation requires schools to obtain written parental consent before conducting excursions outside school grounds. In Victoria, the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (Vic) and the Department of Education's Excursion Policy require that parents receive notification of excursions, including details of the activity, location, transport arrangements, cost, and risk management, and provide written consent before the child participates. In New South Wales, the Education Act 1990 (NSW) and the NSW Department of Education's Excursion Policy impose equivalent requirements. The Education (General Provisions) Act 2006 (Qld), the School Education Act 1999 (WA), the Education Act 1972 (SA), the Education Act 2016 (Tas), the Education Act 2004 (ACT), and the Education Act 2015 (NT) contain similar provisions in other jurisdictions. Schools that conduct excursions without written parental consent risk disciplinary action and, in the event of an incident, may face significantly increased legal liability. Child protection legislation imposes a duty of care on all organisations and individuals working with children. The Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 (NSW), the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 (Vic), the Child Protection Act 1999 (Qld), the Children and Community Services Act 2004 (WA), the Children's Protection Act 1993 (SA), the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act 1997 (Tas), the Children and Young People Act 2008 (ACT), and the Care and Protection of Children Act 2007 (NT) all impose obligations to protect children in the care of organisations from harm and to act in the child's best interests. Collecting parental consent, medical information, and emergency contact details is a key component of meeting this duty of care. Under the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth), parental responsibility for a child is generally shared equally between the parents following separation, unless a court order provides otherwise. This means that, technically, either parent may consent to a child's participation in a school activity. However, in practice, schools address the consent form to the parent or guardian with whom the child resides, and should seek legal advice if parents' consent is in conflict due to a family law dispute. The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles apply to the personal information collected in a parental consent form, including the child's name, date of birth, medical conditions, and the parent's contact details. This information is sensitive personal information under the Act and must be handled with appropriate security and disclosed only to authorised persons who need it to deliver the activity safely. For activities that carry risk of injury or health emergency, the form includes a section for emergency medical treatment consent. This clause authorises school staff or medical professionals to obtain necessary emergency medical treatment for the child if parents cannot be reached in time. The legal basis for this clause derives from state legislation governing emergency care of children, including the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 (NSW) and equivalent provisions in other states, as well as the common law doctrine of necessity that permits medical treatment without consent in genuine emergencies. A signed medical treatment consent clause reduces uncertainty about the school's authority to act in an emergency and may be important in practice when parents are unreachable. This form is suitable for primary and secondary school excursions and camps, early childhood services, youth organisations, sports clubs, community programs, and any other activities involving minor participants where a supervising organisation assumes a duty of care.

Create a comprehensive Australian Photo / Video Consent Form for organisations, schools, sports clubs, event organisers, and businesses. This template covers image rights, privacy obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles, use for websites, social media, marketing, and media, children's image rights and Child Safe Standards, withdrawal rights, and image retention. Suitable for adult subjects and minor subjects with parental/guardian consent. In Australia, photographs and video recordings that identify an individual are personal information under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). This means that Australian organisations that are subject to the Act — including private sector entities with annual turnover over $3 million, all private health service providers, and other entities covered regardless of turnover — must handle images of identifiable individuals in accordance with the 13 Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). Capturing and publishing images without appropriate consent can constitute an interference with privacy under the Act and may give rise to complaints to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), which has the power to investigate and make determinations, and may direct the organisation to pay compensation. Australian Privacy Principle 5 (APP 5) requires that at or before the time of collection of personal information — including photographs — the organisation takes reasonable steps to notify the individual of the identity of the collector, the purposes of collection, the intended disclosures, and the individual's rights of access and complaint. This means that taking photographs of identifiable individuals at an event without prior notification and consent may breach APP 5. Obtaining a signed consent form before the event, or displaying prominent notice boards at an event where photography is taking place, are the most common ways to satisfy this obligation. Australian Privacy Principle 6 (APP 6) restricts the use and disclosure of personal information — including images — to the primary purpose of collection, unless an exception applies. The most important exception is consent. An organisation that collects images for the purpose of documenting an event must have specific consent to use those images for secondary purposes such as website publication, social media, marketing, or media distribution. This is why a comprehensive photo consent form must obtain separate, specific consent for each distinct intended use. The situation is particularly sensitive when children are involved. Australia's Child Safe Standards, which are mandatory for organisations working with children under state and territory legislation — including the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005 (Vic), the Child Safe Organisations Act 2020 (NSW), the Child Protection Act 1999 (Qld), and the Children and Community Services Act 2004 (WA) — require organisations to protect children from harm, including from inappropriate use of children's images. The National Office for Child Safety's Child Safe Framework and the national Child Safe Standards (created under the National Framework for Protecting Australia's Children) require child safe organisations to have specific policies and practices regarding photographing and filming children, including obtaining parental consent before using children's images in any publication. In addition to privacy law, some conduct in relation to images is regulated under criminal law. The Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), the Summary Offences Act 1966 (Vic), the Criminal Code Act 1899 (Qld), and equivalent state legislation create offences for recording intimate images without consent (image-based abuse offences) and for observing or recording a person in private circumstances. These criminal provisions are distinct from the civil privacy framework but reinforce the importance of obtaining clear, documented consent before photographing or filming any individual. Organisations should also be aware that social media platforms — including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok — have their own terms of service governing images published on their platforms, and that once an image is published on a social media platform it may be shared by other users in ways the organisation cannot control. The consent form should draw the individual's attention to this reality so that their consent is truly informed. Children have growing recognition under Australian law and policy of a right to control their own image as they mature. While parents have the legal authority to give consent for a minor's image to be used, organisations should review and honour requests to withdraw or modify consent as a child grows older, particularly when images are published online. The form includes a provision recognising this right. This form is suitable for schools, early childhood services, sports clubs and associations, community organisations, event organisers, healthcare providers, fitness businesses, arts and cultural organisations, corporate event photographers, and any other entity that captures and uses images of identifiable individuals as part of its activities.

Create a compliant Australian Privacy Policy for your business or website. Our template is drafted in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and covers all 13 Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), including APP 1 (open management), APP 5 (notification), APP 6 (use and disclosure), APP 7 (direct marketing), APP 8 (cross-border disclosure), APP 11 (security), APP 12 (access), and APP 13 (correction). Includes the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme, OAIC complaint process, and the $3 million turnover threshold explanation.