This site is owned and operated by Masterton District Council using software licensed from Social Pinpoint. For details on how Masterton District Council collects and protects your personal information, refer to their Privacy Policy below. For details of how Social Pinpoint may access personal information, please refer to Social Pinpoint’s Privacy Policy.

Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to Masterton District Council. Our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information as well as our obligations and your rights as set out in the Privacy Act 2020. You can find more information about your privacy rights on The Office of the Privacy Commissioner website.

This privacy statement applies to “What's Up, Whakaoriori?” only. For information about the broader collection and use of personal information by Masterton District Council, please refer to the Council’s wider Privacy Policy.


Engagement and consultation

We are committed to the local community being involved in making decisions that affect their lives. To do this, we aim to genuinely engage the community in a way that reflects the importance of issues, proposals or decisions being considered. This is done using a variety of methods and channels to gather opinions, which helps us develop options for decisions. The approach used is determined by the Council’s Significance and Engagement Policy.

Consultation is a formal participation process where Council seeks and considers public submissions, including those made under the Local Government Act 2002 for Annual and Long-term Plans. When providing formal feedback through a submission process please refer to the Council’s Submission Policy for further information.

We use engagement where a project needs early input from identified stakeholders or the wider community. Engagement starts and continues throughout projects as required, with subject matter experts and project leaders helping us determine and support effective engagement approaches. Ongoing engagement lets us test initial thinking to see whether we’re on the right track. Engagement activity may include community drop-in sessions, workshops, suggestion boxes, online surveys and quick polls.

Regardless of the approach use the same principles of privacy apply.


How we will use and disclose your information

We use the personal information about you provide on “What's Up, Whakaoriori?” to:

  • send you newsletters and information on topics that you have opted in to receive communication about
  • respond to queries that you have contacted us about
  • attribute content that you post on the site to you
  • analyse use of the site to inform ongoing improvements, enhancements, account activity, and administration
  • inform policy decisions by Masterton District Council
  • for any other purposes that we indicate to you when we request your personal information.


Who has access to your information?

  • Content that you post on the site publicly (such as in a public forum) will be able to be viewed by everyone who uses the site. You will be notified of this before you provide feedback. Each post will contain your chosen username, in the case of informal feedback this does not need to be your real name (you may choose to use an alias, penname, or pseudonym). Please refer to our Submission Policy for minimum criteria for submissions.
  • Consultation and engagement reports will be uploaded as part of the reports provided at Council and committee meetings. Information provided on the Reports page is accepted as public record.
  • These publicly available reports from consultations or engagements will include your name (if provided) but not your personal details (such as phone number or email address). If you have a completed a Submission your full submission will be provided as per our Submission Policy. For other informal engagement approaches quotes from participants in forums, surveys and other consultation tools may be shared.
  • Your feedback, including all demographic details you choose to submit (e.g. age, gender, ethnicity, suburb), will be forwarded in the first instance to the relevant Masterton District Council project team with responsibility for administering the subject matter or project to which your feedback relates.

While Masterton District Council takes multiple measures to protect the anonymity of survey respondents for informal engagement approaches, we ask that you help us reduce the risk of inappropriate information access and exposure by not including other information in your responses that could possibly identify you or others.


How to make a complaint

To make a complaint about anything regarding your privacy or that of others, please visit our Complaints and Disputes webpage.


How to contact us

If you would like to contact us about anything in this Privacy Statement, including if you would like to request access to or correction of your personal information, please contact us at:

Masterton District Council
Email address: mdc@mstn.govt.nz
Postal Address: PO Box 444, Masterton 5840, New Zealand
Phone: (06) 370 6300
In-person at our Customer Service Centre: 161 Queen Street, Masterton

You can also log into your What's Up, Whakaoriori? account at any time to update your username, email address, subscription preferences, notifications and password. For any queries, please contact mdc@mstn.govt.nz.