Merri Creek Management Committee

MCMC's "consumers" include individual residents of the catchment and visitors to the Merri Creek Parklands, community groups, member groups, and other agencies.

Consumer protection includes processes for complaints, grievances and privacy.

Complaints

MCMC maintains a register of complaints in which complaints about MCMC or about the Creek are written, together with details of the complainant. Investigation and response to the complaint are written in the register also. A simple database was designed to record this information but subsequently abandoned as not all staff taking complaints had access to or sufficient skills with computers to be able to use the database.

Pollution complaints are written in a separate book. Details of each complaint are recorded, the complainant is encouraged to ring the EPA directly to record the complaint, and MCMC also rings, to register its interest and to ensure that the message gets through.

Grievances

No procedures have been established for dealing with a complaint from a member of the community if it is not addressed satisfactorily and the member of the community still feels aggrieved. This appears not to have been necessary so far, and could be set up if the need arises.

MCMC's rules provide for expulsion or suspension of a member of MCMC if the member has refused or neglected to follow MCMC's rules or has been guilty of conduct unbecoming of a member or prejudicial to the interests of MCMC.

MCMC's Enterprise Bargaining Agreement provides for procedures to be followed if MCMC's Committee of Management has a grievance with an MCMC staff member.

Privacy

In the light of Federal Government guidelines on privacy, MCMC has prepared a draft Privacy Procedure and Action Plan. MCMC's privacy statement (from the draft procedure) is:

"MCMC collects only the private information it needs in order to fulfil its duties under its Statement of Purposes. It manages this information responsibly and maintains it accurately. We do not divulge personal information without the individual's consent and keep the information secure. We use the information we collect only to further our statement of purposes."

The Action Plan identifies sensitive documents and how they will be kept secure, and who will be responsible for that.