Thank you for your interest in the SBR blog.

The SBR blog provides a forum for businesses, reporting professionals, software developers and other members of the public to discuss SBR online.

All material posted to this blog will be moderated before it is posted and is subject to the:
Conditions of use for this blog;
Copyright statement;
Disclaimer;
Privacy statement; and
Accessibility statement and transcripts.

Conditions of use

How to register
You need to register if you want to comment on the SBR blog.

You will be asked to provide a unique username that will be displayed next to your comments and may be referenced by other participants in their comments. We recommend you use a pen name or pseudonym if you don’t want your real name displayed next to any comments you post. Please note that user names are limited to 32 characters and don’t use any usernames that are offensive, inflammatory, a company/brand name, a trademark, impersonate high-profile/public figures, promote causes, or otherwise breach the Protocols for Participation.

You will also be asked to provide your email address to confirm your registration, which will be linked to your user name. A password will be emailed to you, which you may change at any time and are responsible for the use of.

Apart from your username, your registration information will not be published and will not be stored with the record of your blog comments.

How to contribute to the discussion
When you have registered and received your password, you can login using your username and password and post a comment about any topic discussed on the SBR blog.

Comments are limited to 2,000 characters (approximately 350 words or less).

When/if a topic is closed for comment; all published comments will be archived and accessible via the SBR blog/website.

How we moderate comments
To ensure your comments meets legal requirements and the discussion stays on track, all comments posted to the SBR blog will be moderated against the Protocols for Participation set out below.

All SBR blog comments are subject to moderation, which is a manual process that takes place twice a day during business hours. If we are unable to process your comments within 2 business days of receipt we will post a notice on the blog so that all users are aware that there is a delay in moderation.

SBR blog posts that do not comply with the Protocols for Participation will not be published. The SBR program will not edit your comments in any way or remove any inappropriate comments/links.

All comments you submit to the SBR blog will be retained as a record by the Treasury and archived in accordance with the Treasury’s record keeping policy.

What are the protocols for participation
The intent of the Protocols for Participation is to create a positive environment where people are able to publicly contribute their views on SBR, without fear of abuse or harassment or exposure to offensive or otherwise inappropriate content and protecting the operators of the consultation forum from legal liability.

Participating on the SBR blog is like a physical meeting, so normal social conventions apply. Help us keep the conversation on topic by being polite, constructive and respectful of others.

By registering and contributing to the SBR blog, you give permission for your comments to be posted on the site.

When contributing your comments to the SBR blog, please ensure that you:
• do protect your personal privacy and that of others by not including personal information of either yourself or of others in your posts to the forum (such as names, email addresses, private addresses or phone numbers);
• do post comment to the forum that is relevant to the issues currently being consulted on;
• do represent your own views and do not impersonate or falsely represent any other person;
• do not abuse, harass or threaten others;
• do not make defamatory or libellous comments;
• do not use insulting, provocative or hateful language;
• do not use obscene or offensive language;
• do not post comments you know, or ought reasonably to know, to be false, misleading or deceptive;
• do not post material to the forum that infringes the intellectual property rights of others;
• do not post multiple versions of the same view to the forum;
• do not promote commercial interests in your posts to the forum;
• do not include internet addresses, audio, videos, images or links to websites, or any email addresses, in your contribution;
• do not post party political comments (e.g. reference to candidates, fundraisers, support for political parties);
• do not incite, encourage or make reference to conduct that may constitute a criminal or civil offence or otherwise violate any laws; and
• do not post comments that could, in any other way, be considered inappropriate for publication on the SBR program’s blog.

Other conditions of use
By registering and contributing to the SBR blog, you:
• give permission for your comments and user name to be posted on the SBR blog and for your comments to be used, without personal identification, for any purpose;
• represent and warrant that your comments represent your own work and do not infringe the intellectual property rights of any other individual or organisation;
• represent and warrant that your comments do not infringe any other laws whatsoever, including those relating to content regulation, discrimination, defamation, consumer protection, cyberstalking and harassment;
• agree that your comments are licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution – No Derivatives Work 2.5 Australia licence (for more information view the Copyright Statement) which is incorporated into these Conditions of Use by reference;
• agree that you have read and agree to comply with the SBR blog Privacy Statement and Disclaimer, which are incorporated into these Conditions of Use by reference;
• give us permission to contact you by email for any purposes related to your SBR blog registration, access and/or comments;
• acknowledge that your username, together with any part or all of your comments, may be sufficient for others to identify you;
• acknowledge that we can remove a comment, terminate your registration, or suspend/shut down the SBR blog, at any time without notice;
• acknowledge that while you may withdraw your registration to the SBR blog at any time (by unsubscribing online, where that option is available to you, or by notifying the SBR Program), your contributions may remain online; and
• acknowledge that your access to and use of the SBR blog is on an “as is, as available” basis.

A provision or part of a provision of these Conditions of Use that is illegal or unenforceable may be severed from these Conditions of Use and the remaining provisions or parts of the provisions of these Conditions of Use continue in force.

We reserve the right to amend these Conditions of Use at any time.

You agree to be bound by such amendments immediately upon the Conditions of Use being posted on the SBR blog.

This agreement is to be construed in accordance with, and any matters related to it are to be governed by, the law of the Australian Capital Territory. The parties submit to the jurisdiction of the courts of the Australian Capital Territory.