Privacy of planning submissions

Submissions about planning applications are made publicly available in the Northern Territory (NT).

This is to ensure a transparent and accountable planning system.

When you make a submission, you must include your name and contact details (address or email).

These details can:

• provide valuable context
• help applicants and decision makers address concerns and
• ensure you are kept informed at key points in the process.

Find out more about making a submission on a planning application.

What to exclude

It's recommended that you don't include the following in the body of your submission:

• any personal information that you don't want published or
• the names and identifying details of other people.

Where submissions are published

There are different rules for where and how long submissions are published, depending on the application type.

Withholding personal information

If you want to withhold personal information, you can make a request to DIPL for consideration.

You should do this by email before making your submission.

If a request is granted, personal information will be redacted to 'de-identify' your submission. De-identified submissions will be published as ‘name withheld.’

Even in this case, your personal details will be:

• recorded on DIPL’s records management system
• provided to the decision maker or NT Planning Commission under separate confidential cover.

Withholding personal information does not remove it from the record. It remains subject to disclosure under part 9 of the Information Act 2002. and disposal schedule.

Under the Act, a record becomes open access as archives 30 years after it was created, as sensitivity and confidentiality decrease over time.

How information is stored

Submissions are stored in line with DIPL's disposal schedule for land use and development records.

This is required under the Information Act 2002.

The schedule sets out that public submissions received by Lands Planning and Development Assessment Services are permanent records.

After 10 years, permanent records become archives and are transferred to the NT Archives Service for safekeeping and eventual public access.

Disclaimer

DIPL takes no liability in relation to the content of a submission.

It doesn't edit submissions before publishing, and submissions may be published in full.

The person making the submission remains liable for the content, and any legal action by a third party that may arise. For example, defamation.