Who this applies to
Everyone taking part in TechFest Australia, in any role. Students, teacher mentors, volunteer mentors, judges, organisers, contractors, partners and visitors at public events. It applies online and in person, and it applies to anything done in connection with the program, including social media posts about it.
Where a student is involved, the stricter rules in our child safety statement apply as well. Where the two documents differ, the child safety statement wins.
What we expect
- Treat everyone with respect, including people you are competing against.
- Make room for people who are new to this. Most teams are building something for the first time.
- Welcome students of every background, gender, culture and ability, including First Nations students, students with disability and students from regional and remote communities.
- Give feedback on the work, not the person.
- Ask before you photograph or record anyone.
- Follow safety instructions from organisers, safety officers and venue staff without argument.
- Speak up if something does not look right. You will not be penalised for raising a concern in good faith.
What is not acceptable
- Bullying, harassment, intimidation or threats, in any form.
- Discrimination or slurs based on race, culture, religion, sex, gender identity, sexuality, disability or age.
- Sexual harassment, sexual comments, or any sexual contact involving a person under 18.
- Violence, or damage to someone’s property or project.
- Sharing another person’s private information without their consent.
- Filming or photographing someone who has asked you not to, or publishing images of a student without a parent or guardian’s consent.
- Alcohol, illegal drugs or weapons at any event where students are present.
- Unsafe behaviour around tools, batteries, chemicals, flying equipment or water.
Fair competition
- The work must be the team’s own. Say where you used someone else’s code, design, dataset or components.
- Mentors and teachers guide, question and teach. They do not build the project or write the submission.
- Results must be real. Do not present a simulation as a physical test, or a planned result as a measured one.
- Do not try to influence a judge outside the judging process. Judges declare conflicts of interest and step back from entries they are connected to.
- Every award is decided on the judges’ scores against the published criteria. Nobody wins anything by chance, and nobody can buy an advantage.
Online spaces
- Workshops, check-ins and mentoring happen in group or supervised channels, not in private messages.
- Use your real name and your registered account.
- Keep chat on topic and appropriate for a room with primary school students in it.
- Do not record or screenshot a session with students in it unless the organisers have said you can.
- Do not share join links outside your team.
Adults working with students
These rules are not negotiable, and they apply to every adult in the program.
- No unsupervised one-to-one contact with a student, online or in person.
- No private messaging, personal phone numbers, personal social media contact or private email with a student.
- No lifts, gifts, money or favours.
- No photographing or filming a student outside the program.
- No meeting a student outside program activities.
Every adult who works with students must hold the Working with Children Check required where the activity takes place, and we verify it before they are matched with a team. Students at in-person events are supervised by their teacher mentor.
At in-person events
- Sign in and wear your pass.
- Students stay with their team and their teacher mentor.
- Follow the venue’s safety rules, and the rules published for any launch, flight or water activity.
- Report an injury, a hazard or a near miss to an organiser straight away.
Reporting a breach
Tell us. Email hello@techfestaustralia.com.au with what happened, when and who was involved. Students, parents, guardians, teachers, mentors, judges and volunteers can all report, and you can ask to stay anonymous. At an event, tell any organiser or venue staff member.
If someone is in immediate danger, call 000. For a concern about a child’s safety, email hello@techfestaustralia.com.au with “Child safety” in the subject line. We act on it, and we report to police or the child protection authority in the relevant state or territory where we need to.
What happens next
We look into every report. We tell the person what has been said about them and give them a chance to respond, unless doing so would put someone at risk. We keep the people involved informed about what we can share.
Depending on what we find, the response can be:
- a conversation and a reminder of this code;
- a written warning;
- removing a person from a session, a channel or an event;
- ending a mentor, judge or volunteer role;
- withdrawing an entry from the competition;
- a report to police, a child protection authority, a school or an employer.
If we withdraw an entry for a breach that the entrant did not cause, we refund the entry fee. See the refund and cancellation policy. Decisions under this code can be reviewed by emailing hello@techfestaustralia.com.au and asking for a review by someone who was not involved. [PLACEHOLDER: named reviewer, once the organising team is appointed]
This draft still needs a legal review. Entity name, ABN, postal address and the entry fee are placeholders until the organiser confirms them. TechFest Australia is an independent program. It is not run by, funded by or affiliated with any government.
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