All attendees of AusCERT2021 agree to be bound by the AusCERT Code of Conduct.

AusCERT is committed to the ideals expressed in our culture statement and ask all our event delegates, speakers, sponsors, partners, facilities staff, committee members and guests to adopt these principles. We are a diverse community. We value your participation and appreciate your help in realising this goal.

Be excellent to each other, show empathy, and help make the conference a safe space to learn new things about our industry, explore and exchange ideas.

Who is our Code of Conduct for?

Our code of conduct is for all event delegates, speakers, sponsors, partners, facilities staff and committee members.

How we Define Acceptable and Unacceptable Behaviour

People’s interpretation of acceptable or unacceptable behaviour is subjective and influenced by personal experience, religion and cultural background. That’s why we believe it’s important to define what we mean by both.

Acceptable Behaviour

As an event organiser, we expect everyone to be professional and respectful to others at all times. Everyone should be aware of the impact their behaviour can have on others. We ask that you:

  • Respect the venue, the staff and any equipment you may be allowed to use.
  • Be courteous and well-mannered when speaking to someone or engaging with them.
  • Treat people the same way you would like to be treated.
  • Respect someone’s personal space and body – when someone says no it is a no, not maybe.

Unacceptable Behaviour

Unacceptable behaviour is offensive in nature – it disturbs, upsets or threatens. It lowers self-esteem or causes overwhelming torment. It is characteristically and can take the following forms:

  • Derogatory, inflammatory or discriminatory language, comments or conduct.
  • Engineered episodes of intimidation, aggressive actions or repeated gestures.
  • Repetitive heckling and disruption of talks.
  • Using sexual images or sex toys in public and virtual spaces.
  • Inappropriate photography or recordings (where inappropriate is defined as used later in a sexual, derogatory or defamatory manner or for exploitation).
  • Stalking or following.
  • Persistent and unwanted sexual advances.
  • Unwanted physical contact.
  • Encouraging any of the above behaviours.

How to Report Unacceptable Behaviour

Option 1. Speak up. See it, say it, try and resolve it. If you are disrespected or witness this happening to someone else, engage politely with the person involved, if you feel able to, and let them know that you find their behaviour unacceptable and offensive. Sometimes the best way to change unacceptable behaviour is by bringing it to the perpetrator’s attention and giving them an opportunity to acknowledge this and apologise.

Option 2. Report it to us via any of the following ways: Inform a member of our event staff who can be identified by their badge (if onsite) OR email us at conference@auscert.org.au.

When reporting, please provide as much detail as possible, preferably:

Your name and contact details (email, cell/mobile phone and address). The time it occurred. The place it occurred. The names and contact details of any witnesses. The outcome you are expecting (e.g. letter of apology, steps taken to prevent a similar instance from occurring etc.)

Note: you can remain anonymous if you so wish and providing any of the above information is optional. We don’t have a time limit for reporting unacceptable behaviour, although we encourage you to do it as quickly as possible, as it can be difficult to obtain accurate witness statements the longer time passes. If you report unacceptable behaviour more than 3-months after an incident, you should explain why as it may impact the ability to respond accordingly. We will consider your explanation and then endeavour to deal with your report.

Our process does not replace or remove the formal mechanisms available to you as an individual to report inappropriate or offensive behaviour such as making a police report.

Our process is as follows:

  1. We will acknowledge your report and reply via email within 5 business hours.
  2. We will perform a thorough investigation within 10 business days.
  3. We will not comment on your experience or perception of it.
  4. We will keep it wholly professional and confidential.
  5. We will treat all of the people involved fairly and objectively, irrespective of what our relationship with them is.
  6. We will apply the appropriate sanctions/remediations e.g. warnings, direction to learning resources on the topic of harassment, bullying or anti-social behaviour, temporary or permanent suspensions, and if necessary report them to the police. We reserve the right to remove people from the event or prevent people from joining the event.
  7. We will take into consideration your wishes in any enforcement.
  8. We will suggest measures we can take to ensure incidents of this nature do not reoccur at future events.

This document is available to be re-used or modified under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia licence, available from CreativeCommons.org