Privacy Policy
Red Earth Finance
Last updated: 23 October 2026
1. About this Privacy Policy
Red Earth Finance respects your privacy and is committed to handling your personal information responsibly.
This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, why we collect it, how we use and protect it, and when we may share it with other organisations.
It also explains how you can access or correct your information, manage marketing communications and make a privacy complaint.
We handle personal information in accordance with applicable requirements of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), including the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).
This policy applies to people who contact us, visit our website, use our services, are referred to us or otherwise deal with our business. This includes prospective and existing clients, co-applicants, guarantors and other people involved in a finance enquiry or application.
2. Who we are
Red Earth Finance is operated by F Meloni & D.G Murray, ABN 36 321 229 473.
We provide mortgage-broking and credit-assistance services to customers throughout Australia.
Our credit representatives include:
• Fabian Meloni — Credit Representative Number 482476.
• David Murray — Credit Representative Number 474759.
Our credit representatives operate under Australian Credit Licence 389328, held by Connective Credit Services Pty Ltd.
We also use aggregation services provided by Connective Broker Services Pty Ltd.
Red Earth Finance, our credit licensee and our aggregator have different roles in providing and administering our services. They may each have responsibilities for handling personal information.
In this policy, “we”, “us” and “our” refer to Red Earth Finance, unless we specifically identify another organisation.
Contact us
Privacy contact: David Murray
Email: dave@redearthfinance.com.au
Phone: 0468 990 095
Post: 20 Watervale Drive, Redland Bay QLD 4165
You can contact us about this policy, the information we hold about you, or a privacy concern.
3. The information we collect
The information we collect depends on the services you request and your dealings with us.
General enquiries and contact information
We may collect:
• Your name, email address, telephone number and address.
• Information you provide in an online form, telephone conversation, email or appointment.
• Details of your finance enquiry, goals and circumstances.
• Records of our communications with you.
• Information about how you came to contact us, including referral details.
Mortgage and credit-assistance information
When you request credit assistance, we may need more detailed information, including:
• Identity information, date of birth, residency and identification documents.
• Employment, occupation, income and income verification documents.
• Living expenses, financial commitments, assets and liabilities.
• Bank statements, account information and transaction records.
• Existing credit facilities, repayments and credit history.
• Property details, security information, valuations and loan requirements.
• Financial goals, objectives, preferences and relevant future plans.
• Information about other applicants, guarantors, dependants or related parties.
• Application documents, lender communications and information about loan outcomes.
We collect the information reasonably needed to assess your circumstances, identify suitable options, assist with applications and meet applicable legal and regulatory obligations.
Sensitive information
Sometimes you may provide sensitive information, such as health information, or information about financial hardship, disability or circumstances affecting your ability to manage financial commitments.
We only collect sensitive information where permitted by law, including where we have the necessary consent, or another lawful basis applies.
We use this information only for appropriate purposes, such as understanding your needs, arranging suitable assistance or meeting legal obligations.
Identification information
We may collect identification documents or government-related identifiers where reasonably necessary to verify your identity or meet legal requirements.
We do not use government-related identifiers as our own customer identification numbers unless authorised by law.
Website and technical information
When you use our website or electronic services, information may include:
• Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.
• Device and browser information.
• Pages visited and interactions with website content.
• Cookies and similar online identifiers.
• Form submission and communication records.
• Technical and security information.
Some of this information may identify you directly or indirectly.
4. How we collect information
We usually collect personal information directly from you.
This may happen when you:
• Contact us by telephone, email or through our website.
• Complete a form or request an appointment.
• Discuss your borrowing needs with us.
• Provide financial information or supporting documents.
• Apply for finance with our assistance.
• Respond to our communications.
• Provide feedback or make a complaint.
Where appropriate and permitted, we may also collect information from other sources, including:
• A person who refers you to us.
• Your co-applicant, partner or guarantor.
• Your accountant, solicitor, conveyancer or other authorised adviser.
• Credit providers and financial institutions.
• Employers or other sources used to verify information.
• Credit reporting services where we have the necessary authorisation.
• Property information, valuation and verification services.
• Publicly available sources where relevant to your enquiry or application.
If you provide information about another person, please ensure you are authorised to provide it and, where appropriate, make them aware of this Privacy Policy.
You can sometimes make a general enquiry without identifying yourself. However, we generally need identifying and financial information before providing personalised credit assistance.
5. Why we collect and use information
We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information to carry out our mortgage-broking business and provide the services you request.
This includes:
Responding to enquiries
We use the information you provide to contact you, understand your enquiry, arrange appointments and explain our services.
Providing credit assistance
We use relevant financial and personal information to assess your circumstances, consider lender options, prepare recommendations and assist with finance applications.
Verifying information
We may verify identity, financial circumstances, employment, liabilities and other relevant details.
Managing applications and client relationships
We maintain records of enquiries, applications, settlements, ongoing communications and services you request after settlement.
Meeting our obligations
We may use information to comply with credit legislation, best interests duty requirements, licensee supervision, record-keeping obligations, complaints handling and other applicable laws.
Operating and improving our business
We may use information for administration, quality assurance, staff training, service improvement, security, reporting and business management.
Marketing
We may use contact information to send marketing communications where we have the consent required by law or are otherwise legally permitted to do so.
Our approach to marketing is explained separately in section 9.
We may also use or disclose information for other purposes where you have authorised us or the law permits or requires it.
6. When we share your information
We do not sell customer contact lists to third-party marketers.
We may disclose personal information to other organisations where reasonably necessary to provide our services, administer our business, meet legal obligations or act with your authority.
Recipients may include:
Our credit licensee and aggregator
We may provide information to Connective Credit Services Pty Ltd, Connective Broker Services Pty Ltd and their relevant service providers for purposes including:
• Credit assistance and loan processing.
• Compliance supervision and monitoring.
• Administration and record keeping.
• Complaints and dispute resolution.
• Other activities relevant to the provision and management of our services.
We use Connective's Mercury Nexus platform to manage client and financial information as part of our mortgage-broking operations.
Lenders and other finance participants
Where appropriate for the assistance you request, we may disclose information to:
• Banks and other credit providers.
• Lenders mortgage insurers and other insurers relevant to your application.
• Valuers and property information providers.
• Identity, financial information and verification providers.
• Other organisations involved in assessing, processing or administering a finance application.
A lender may separately collect, use and disclose your information under its own privacy policy and credit-related notices.
Professional advisers and authorised parties
Where necessary and appropriate, we may share relevant information with your authorised accountant, solicitor, conveyancer, financial adviser or other representative.
Information provided to a referral source will be limited to what is appropriate and permitted, taking account of your authority and privacy.
Business and technology service providers
We use external providers to help operate our business.
Depending on the service involved, these include:
• Wix: website hosting and online enquiry forms.
• Make: processing and transferring website enquiry information between connected business systems.
• ActiveCampaign: customer contact management, enquiry records and email communications.
• Connective Mercury Nexus: client information, finance applications, compliance records and broker administration.
• Quickli: lending scenario calculations, borrowing capacity assessments and lender policy comparisons using relevant client and financial information.
• Google Analytics: measuring and reporting website usage.
• Calendly: appointment scheduling where used.
• Other providers supporting email, electronic documents, business systems, professional services and technology administration.
These providers receive or process information relevant to the work they perform.
Not every provider receives your complete financial information or loan application file. In particular, information collected through a short website enquiry form differs from the detailed financial information needed for credit assistance.
Other disclosures
We may disclose personal information where required or authorised by law, including to regulators, dispute resolution bodies, courts or other authorities.
Information may also be disclosed as permitted by law in connection with a business sale or restructuring.
7. Overseas handling of personal information
Some organisations involved in providing our services operate outside Australia or use overseas data processing facilities.
Our current business technology arrangements include:
• Make: our organisation uses Make's European Union data region for website enquiry integration.
• ActiveCampaign: our account uses ActiveCampaign's Australian data-hosting region for contact information.
• Connective: our credit-assistance documentation identifies the Philippines, India and Nepal as possible locations of overseas recipients.
• Quickli: We use Quickli for lending scenario processing, lender policy comparisons and AI-assisted document processing. Quickli identifies Australia as the primary hosting location for its core application, database services and temporary document storage. However, certain third-party services, including AI document-processing providers, may process client information outside Australia.
We do not separately engage an overseas administration or support team to process customer information.
However, some technology providers and their subcontractors may operate internationally. The location of a provider's primary data centre does not necessarily establish that all associated services, support or processing occur exclusively in that region.
Not every overseas location or recipient is involved in every customer enquiry or finance application.
We take reasonable steps to comply with applicable Australian privacy requirements when personal information is disclosed to overseas recipients. Where required, this includes taking reasonable steps to ensure overseas recipients handle information consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles.
Australian privacy law may continue to make us accountable for certain overseas disclosures, subject to applicable exceptions.
You can contact us for further information about overseas handling relevant to the services you receive.
8. Credit information and credit reporting
When you request credit assistance, we may collect and use information about your existing loans, credit commitments, repayment obligations and credit history.
If you authorise us in writing, and where permitted by law, we or Connective may act on your behalf to request credit information or a credit report from a credit reporting body.
Depending on the authorisation and service involved, credit reporting services may include Equifax and Experian.
We may use information lawfully obtained in this way to help assess your circumstances and identify suitable credit options.
Where authorised and appropriate, we may provide relevant information or credit reports to prospective credit providers to assist them in assessing your application.
Making a general website enquiry does not, by itself, authorise us to obtain a credit report.
Where additional credit-reporting consent or authorisation is required, we will obtain it through the appropriate credit-assistance process.
Credit providers and credit reporting bodies have their own legal obligations and privacy policies. Their policies explain how they handle credit reporting information, including repayment history, defaults, access, correction and other credit-reporting rights.
You can ask us which credit reporting services are relevant to an application and how to contact them.
9. Enquiries, marketing and your choices
We distinguish between communications about a service you have requested and direct marketing.
Communications about your enquiry or loan
If you submit an enquiry, we may use your contact details to respond, provide the information you requested, arrange a discussion and manage that enquiry.
If you become a client, we may also contact you about your application, existing loan or other services you have requested.
These communications do not automatically mean you have subscribed to ongoing marketing.
Marketing communications
We may send emails or other communications about mortgage information, our services, relevant offers and updates where permitted by law.
For electronic commercial marketing, we require legally valid consent. This may be express consent or, where the law permits and the circumstances support it, inferred consent.
We do not assume that submitting a general website enquiry gives consent to receive unrelated ongoing marketing.
Where an enquiry form offers an optional marketing checkbox, leaving it unticked does not prevent us from responding to the enquiry, but does not grant the marketing permission sought by that checkbox.
We use our contact management systems to manage communications, record marketing preferences and process unsubscribe requests.
Withdrawing consent and unsubscribing
You can unsubscribe from marketing at any time by using the unsubscribe option in a marketing message or by contacting us directly.
We will process your request without charge and within the period required by law.
You can also contact us to withdraw other consents. Withdrawing consent may affect our ability to provide certain services, and we will explain any relevant consequences.
Withdrawing marketing consent does not prevent communications that are otherwise necessary or lawful for managing a service you requested or meeting our obligations.
10. Website cookies and Google Analytics
Our website uses cookies and similar technologies to support its operation and measure website usage.
We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors interact with our website and to help us improve its content and functionality.
Google Analytics may collect information including:
• Pages visited and the time spent on our website.
• How visitors reach and interact with our pages.
• Browser and device information.
• General geographic information.
• Cookies and identifiers used to distinguish website visits and sessions.
Google Analytics may process IP addresses when collecting information, including to derive approximate location data. In Google Analytics 4, raw IP addresses are discarded rather than being stored in Analytics reporting data.
Google may process website analytics information using infrastructure outside Australia under its applicable privacy and data-processing arrangements.
We use Google Analytics for website measurement and reporting. We do not currently use separate advertising pixels or ActiveCampaign website tracking on our Wix website.
You can manage or restrict cookies through your browser settings. You can also use Google's available controls to limit Google Analytics measurement.
Disabling some cookies may affect website functionality or reduce the accuracy of analytics reporting.
For more information about Google's handling of information, see Google's Privacy Policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy.
11. Computer-assisted assessments and automated systems
We use software and computer-assisted tools to help us assess finance options, compare lending requirements, organise information and manage applications.
These include Quickli and Connective Mercury Nexus, which process identifiable client and financial information as part of our normal mortgage-broking operations.
We use Quickli for ordinary lending scenario processing, including borrowing capacity calculations, lender policy comparisons and loan scenario assessments.
We use Quickli's AI-powered document-processing features to identify and organise client documents, extract relevant financial information and assist in preparing lending scenarios.
Depending on the service, these systems may use information such as:
• Identity and residency information.
• Employment and income.
• Living expenses, assets and liabilities.
• Existing credit commitments and relevant credit information.
• Loan requirements, objectives and property details.
Computer programs may calculate indicative borrowing capacity, compare eligibility criteria, organise application information, identify matters requiring further investigation or assist us in assessing which lending options may be suitable.
These activities may substantially assist assessments that affect the options available to you.
All assessments and recommendations made by Red Earth Finance are subject to human review.
Our brokers consider the relevant information, assess the circumstances and review software-generated calculations, comparisons and outputs before making a recommendation or providing credit assistance.
We do not rely solely on automated software outputs to make final credit-assistance recommendations.
We do not make a lender's credit approval decision. Credit providers make their own decisions about applications and may use separate automated systems under their own policies.
You can contact us if you would like more information about how computer-assisted assessments have been used in providing our services.
12. How we store and protect information
We hold personal information in electronic records and, where necessary, physical documents.
Electronic records may be managed through our business systems, credit-assistance platforms and external service providers, including Connective Mercury Nexus, Quickli and other systems relevant to the service provided.
We take reasonable steps to protect the personal information we hold from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
These steps include appropriate controls over access to information, management of service providers and other safeguards relevant to the information involved.
No electronic storage or communication system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.
If we become aware of a suspected data breach, we will assess and respond to it in accordance with applicable requirements.
Where a breach is notifiable under Australia's Notifiable Data Breaches scheme, we will make the required notifications.
13. How long we keep information
We retain personal information for as long as it is reasonably needed for legitimate business purposes, including providing services, managing customer relationships, meeting legal obligations and dealing with complaints or disputes.
Some mortgage and credit-assistance records must be retained for periods prescribed by law or applicable regulatory requirements.
For example, credit-assistance record-keeping and assessment obligations can require relevant records to remain available for several years.
We cannot always delete an entire customer file immediately on request.
When information is no longer required for a permitted purpose, and we are not legally required to retain it, we take reasonable steps to destroy it securely or de-identify it.
Retention periods may differ depending on the type of information, the service involved and applicable legal requirements.
14. Accessing or correcting your information
You can ask us to provide access to the personal information we hold about you.
You can also ask us to correct information that is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading.
To make a request, contact:
David Murray — Privacy Contact
Email: dave@redearthfinance.com.au
Phone: 0468 990 095
We may ask for reasonable information to confirm your identity before releasing or changing personal information.
We will respond within a reasonable period, generally within 30 days.
There is no charge to request access or correction, and we do not charge for correcting personal information. If a permitted charge applies to providing access, we will tell you beforehand.
Sometimes the law allows or requires us to refuse access or correction. If that happens, we will explain the reasons where permitted and advise you of available complaint options.
If the information is held separately by a lender, credit reporting body or another organisation, you may also need to contact that organisation.
15. Privacy concerns and complaints
If you believe we have mishandled your personal information, please tell us.
You can make a privacy complaint by telephone, email or post. You do not have to submit your initial complaint in writing.
Please explain what happened and what you would like us to do to resolve your concern. We will assess your complaint, investigate where necessary and respond as promptly as practicable.
For most credit-service complaints, the usual maximum internal dispute resolution response period is 30 calendar days, subject to applicable exceptions.
We aim to respond to privacy complaints within 30 days and will explain if further time is reasonably required.
Our contact details and information about escalating a complaint to Connective, AFCA or the OAIC are provided in the expandable sections below.
Privacy contact
David Murray
Email: dave@redearthfinance.com.au
Phone: 0468 990 095
Post: 20 Watervale Drive, Redland Bay QLD 4165Complaints contact
Connective Credit Services Pty Ltd
Attention: Compliance and Complaints Handling Officer
Phone: 1300 656 637
Email: complaints@connective.com.auPost: Level 29, 555 Collins Street
Melbourne VIC 3000External dispute resolution
If an eligible credit or financial services complaint remains unresolved, or you are dissatisfied with the outcome, you may contact the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).
AFCA provides free and independent dispute resolution for consumers.
Phone: 1800 931 678
Email: info@afca.org.au
Website: www.afca.org.au
Post: GPO Box 3, Melbourne VIC 3001Time limits may apply to AFCA complaints.
Privacy complaints
If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your privacy complaint, you may be able to complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).
The OAIC generally expects you to complain directly to the relevant organisation first and allow a reasonable opportunity for a response. Where relevant, you may also need to consider an external dispute resolution process.
Phone: 1300 363 992
Website: www.oaic.gov.au
16. Other privacy documents
When you proceed with credit assistance, we may provide additional privacy disclosures, consent documents and lender-specific information.
These can include Connective's Privacy Disclosure Statement and Consent and the privacy documents of a lender or credit reporting service.
Those documents explain additional collection, use, disclosure and authorisation requirements relevant to particular credit activities.
This general Privacy Policy does not replace any separate consent or authorisation required for those activities.
You can request further information or copies of applicable privacy documents by contacting us.
17. Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update this policy when our business practices, service providers or legal obligations change.
Any updates to this Privacy Policy will be published on this page.
The "Last updated" date at the beginning of this policy indicates when it was most recently revised.
For questions about this policy or the handling of your personal information, contact dave@redearthfinance.com.au.