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This website allowed Australians to provide their views to the Australian Government about options to improve the health system.

The site is operated by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. All user submissions in this website have been published in good faith. No one has been paid to contribute. None of the comments, stories, feedback or videos received from the community were scripted (though they may have been moderated for acceptability and/or edited for brevity as below).

All external comments, feedback, videos and stories received via the website were published in the website, except at the express wish of the submitter, or where they contravene the moderation guidelines below.

• Moderation guidelines
• Blog
• Feedback and comments: ‘Tell us what you think’ and ‘Share your story’
• Video
• RSS feed
• Twitter

Moderation guidelines

• It breached privacy considerations
• It was irrelevant to the issues being considered
• It contained abusive, harassing or threatening content
• It was potentially defamatory or libellous
• It was insulting, provocative or hateful
• It contained obscene or offensive language
• It may have infringed the intellectual property rights of others
• Multiple, duplicate, identical or near-identical 'campaign-type' versions were received from one or more sources
• It promoted commercial interests
• It contained inappropriate addresses, videos, or images
• It contained overtly party political comment.

Blog

Every comment to the blog was moderated according to the moderation guidelines above. Any comment that did not comply with one or more of the guidelines — and where the content in question could not reasonably be removed/edited from the comment — was not published on the website. Upon request, moderators would provide to a user the reasons why their comment had been rejected, giving them an opportunity to resubmit an edited version.
Only those comments that did not comply with these guidelines were rejected. All comments that satisfied moderation requirements were published. Comment publication timeframes were at the discretion of the yourHealth team, based on the quantity of comments submitted and level of moderator consideration required.

Where links to websites were included in comments submitted to the blog, the linked websites were be moderated in accordance with the same moderation guidelines. Comments that provide links to websites that did not comply with these guidelines at the time of publication were published without the link.

During moderation, comments may have been edited for typographical, grammatical or spelling errors. Where such editing could have damaged the context of the comment, comments were not edited.

Users were required to register to comment on the blog, selecting a unique username that was published with their comments. Users were required to protect their usernames with a password. For more information, please see our blog terms and conditions.

Email addresses provided by users upon registration and all comments submitted to the yourHealth blog are stored in a secure database. Email addresses are not published on the website. For more information, please view our Privacy Statement.

All blog comments, whether published in the website or not, were used to inform the health reform process.

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Feedback and comments: ‘Tell us what you think’ and ‘Share your story’

Anybody who wished to provide a comment via the site could do so. All comments that satisfied the moderation guidelines (as outlined above) were published on the website, except at the express request of the submitter.

Comment and feedback publication timeframes were at the discretion of the yourHealth team, based on the quantity of submissions and level of moderator consideration required.

Any comment that did not comply with one or more of the moderation guidelines — and where the content in question could not reasonably be removed/edited from the comment — was not published on the website. Upon request, moderators would provide to a user reasons why their post was rejected, giving them an opportunity to resubmit an edited version.

Only those comments that did not comply with these guidelines were rejected.

During moderation, comments may have been edited for typographical, grammatical or spelling errors. Where such editing could have damaged the context of the comment, comments were not edited.

Regardless of whether full names and titles were provided by users submitting comments, only first names were published with comments on the website, except where users were prominent individuals representing their professional or organisation’s views. Users who included mention in their comments of their professional title or affiliations, or those who claimed to represent the views of a professional body, were contacted via email (if provided) when necessary and required to authenticate their professional position before their comment were published on the site. Where an email was not provided or comments were otherwise unable to be authenticated, full names and the names of professional bodies were removed before the comment was published.

All feedback and comments, whether published in the website or not, were used to inform the health reform process.

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Video

People from cities and towns around Australia were approached by members of the Health Reform Taskforce or, for an initial period during the consultation process, by a production company on behalf of the department, and invited to tell their health story. Those who wished to contribute were asked to give their accounts of any experiences with the health care system — whether positive or negative — and to share their views on future improvements. These videos were not scripted and people were only asked for their first name and, at consultation events, their profession. They were not asked about their political views.

Videos could also be submitted by individuals, and published according to the moderation guidelines above.

Videos were included on the site unless content contravened the moderation guidelines, or were technically flawed due to lighting, sound or videoing difficulties.

Editing was undertaken where necessary to fit the video within time constraints or to remove personally identifying information to protect the privacy of the persons filmed and any persons they might mention.

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RSS feed

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Twitter

Twitter is a web-based group messaging service.

yourHealth has an account on Twitter — @yourhealthgovau — which is available to any user who wishes to follow yourHealth on Twitter.

@yourhealthgovau is produced by the Department of Health and Ageing’s yourHealth team to keep the public up-to-date and informed about the yourHealth consultation process.

The yourHealth Twitter channel supplements the information published on the yourHealth.gov.au website. Following @yourhealthgovau on Twitter allows users to be reminded about important events and alerted to breaking news. yourHealth Twitter followers can access yourHealth updates from mobile devices.

Where possible, the yourHealth team will respond to direct messages. Users please note the yourHealth Twitter channel is monitored during business hours only, and that Twitter conversations are considered comparatively informal, similar to a telephone conversation. For more formal requests or inquiries users can contact the yourHealth team by emailing yourhealth@yourhealth.gov.au. Alternatively, to leave a comment yourHealth users can use the ‘tell us what you think’ web form.

Users following yourHealth on Twitter may be followed in return. Users can request that yourHealth unfollow them by emailing yourhealth@yourhealth.gov.au or block @yourhealthgovau at any time using the block option in Twitter.

Users are reminded to be aware that Twitter is a public space on the internet and all interactions are publicly viewable and searchable over time. For more information go to http://help.twitter.com

Users’ identities or email addresses are not recorded unless users choose to contact yourHealth or fill in an online form on the yourHealth web site including this information. Users’ email addresses will only be used for the purpose for which they are provided.

For more details, view the yourHealth website Privacy Statement. Please also note Twitter’s Privacy Policy.

While the yourHealth team endeavors to maintain the currency and accuracy of information published via Twitter, the information is subject to change over time. It is advisable that users ascertain the currency of information immediately prior to use. The Department of Health and Ageing disclaims all responsibility for any loss or damage which may arise from the use information provided via this channel.

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