CHAPTER 2 | about us

Organisation and structure

The National Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the office of the ACT Ombudsman are co-located in Canberra. The Commonwealth Ombudsman also has offices in Adelaide, Brisbane, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

The Ombudsman and Deputy Ombudsman are statutory officers appointed under the Ombudsman Act 1976. Staff are employed under the Public Service Act 1999.

The office comprises a range of functional elements:

• Central office functions and responsibilities (including human resources, information technology, financial services, records management and public relations) and the principal specialist teams are based in the National Office in Canberra.
  
  
• Offices throughout Australia handle complaints and undertake some specialist work. Complaint handling relating to the ACT Ombudsman function is performed in Canberra. A Senior Assistant Ombudsman, located in Melbourne, supervises the Adelaide, Brisbane, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney offices, as well as other corporate functions.

Three Senior Assistant Ombudsman manage the specialist teams located in the National Office:

• ACT Regional Team—dual role in complaint handling relating to Australian Government and ACT Government departments and agencies.
  
  
• Defence Team—specialised advice and complaint handling relating to the Australian Defence Force and Department of Veterans' Affairs, also specialising in Customs, Comcare and Comsuper complaints.
  
  
• Immigration Team—specialised advice and complaint handling relating to the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs.
  
  
• Law Enforcement Team—complaint handling, monitoring and investigation of law enforcement activities relating to Australian Government law enforcement agencies.
  
  
• Social Support Team—specialised advice and complaint handling relating to the Department of Family and Community Services, Centrelink, and the Child Support Agency.
  
  
• Taxation Team—specialised advice and complaint handling relating to the Australian Taxation Office, under the supervision of the Ombudsman's Special Tax Adviser.

Chart 1 illustrates the organisational structure of the Ombudsman's office. This annual report contains feature pages of the specialist teams.