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Our historyThe first Commonwealth Ombudsman, Professor Jack Richardson, was appointed in March 1977. This section contains a general history of the Ombudsman's office in Australia with profiles of each Commonwealth Ombudsman and timelines of legislative changes and responsbilities during their respective periods of office.
IntroductionAn ombudsman is an official, usually (but not always) appointed by the government or parliament, who is charged with representing the interests of the public by investigating and addressing complaints reported by individual citizens. The modern meaning arose from its use in Sweden with the Parliamentary Ombudsman instituted in 1809 to safeguard the rights of citizens by establishing a supervisory agency independent of the executive branch. The word ombudsman is not gender specific. Its specific meaning has since been adopted into English as well as other languages, and ombudsmen have been instituted by many other governments and organisations. The origin of the word is found in Old Norse and the word umbuds man, meaning representative. The first preserved use in Swedish is from 1552. It is also used in the other Scandinavian languages such as the Icelandic umboðsmaður, the Norwegian ombudsman and the Danish ombudsmand. New Zealand became the first English speaking country to appoint an ombudsman in 1962. The office of the United Kingdom Ombudsman was established in 1967. The first Ombudsman in Australia was appointed in Western Australia in 1971, and was followed by the appointment of an ombudsman in Victoria in 1972, and in Queensland and New South Wales in 1974. Legislation to establish an office of Commonwealth Ombudsman was enabled in 1976, and the first Commonwealth Ombudsman commenced operation on 1 July 1977. The concept of the ombudsman as an independent person who can investigate and resolve disputes between citizens and government has spread to over 120 countries and is seen to be an essential accountability mechanism in democratic societies. [top] Australian Administrative Law in the 1960s and 1970sThe administrative processes of government were increasingly impacting on Australians during the 1960s and 1970s, but there was no coordinated approach to administrative law reform that could offset the problems created by the new administrative complexity. Ordinary Australians had no realistic or affordable means to test administrative actions or decisions. Access to redress via the courts – through a judicial review process marked by rigidity and the inherent danger that justice could be denied by a technicality. A significant point in the development of an Australian Ombudsman was the passage of the Parliamentary Commissioner (Ombudsman) Act through the New Zealand Parliament in 1962. Three years later, Mr Justice Else-Mitchell, then a member of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, provided the impetus for administrative law reform in Australia when he delivered a paper titled ‘The Place of the Administrative Tribunal in 1965’ at the Third Commonwealth and Empire Law Conference in Sydney. Between 1968 and 1973, the Federal Government established three committees to examine administrative decision making and review in Australia. [top] The Kerr CommitteeOn 29 October 1968, the Government established the Commonwealth Administrative Review Committee, known as ‘The Kerr Committee’ after its Chairman Sir John Kerr, then a member of the Commonwealth Industrial Court.
The Kerr Committee saw the Ombudsman as a ‘general counsel for grievances’ set in the area of administrative review, rather than in a parliamentary executive situation. The Kerr Committee suggested that the general counsel for grievances should be associated with a general appeal tribunal and other review institutions. [top] The Bland and Ellicott CommitteesFollowing the release of the Kerr Committee’s report, the Government appointed two committees to further examine administrative law reform in Australia, known as the Bland and Ellicott Committees. On 19 January 1973, the Bland Committee made an interim report proposing the establishment of an Ombudsman’s office.
[top] An Australian OmbudsmanBefore he became Prime Minister in 1972, Gough Whitlam foreshadowed the appointment of an Ombudsman as a ‘guardian of the people’. The Ombudsman would investigate complaints from members of the public about unjust treatment by government departments and authorities and would report directly to Parliament.
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Last updated: 30.01.07
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