CHAPTER 6 | how the Ombudsman helped people

Handling complaints from Members of Parliament

A distinctive role of the Ombudsman is to handle complaints referred from Members of Parliament (MPs). The link between Parliament and the Ombudsman is strong and historically rooted. The first ombudsman in Australia (in Western Australia) was described as the 'Parliamentary Commissioner for Administrative Investigations'—as, initially, was the Queensland Ombudsman. Some Ombudsmen abroad have the status of a parliamentary officer, with direct responsibility to the Parliament. In some systems, a complainant can only approach the Ombudsman through their local MP.

MPs in Australia, in discharging their constituency role, perform a function similar to the Ombudsman of taking up the grievances of their constituents directly with government agencies. This is a major function of the electorate offices of many MPs. Even so, many MPs find that the Ombudsman's office can be a useful supplement or alternative to their own constituency work. Sometimes we are better placed because of our resources, experience and information-gathering powers to investigate an issue brought initially to an MP's attention, as illustrated in the Clarification case study.

Difficulties for MPs can arise where a constituent has no confidence in the investigation carried out by an agency. This may arise because the relationship between the agency and the constituent has reached an impasse, or because the constituent holds the agency responsible for some event, particularly in a significant family trauma (as illustrated in the Verifying events case study). The Ombudsman's office can independently verify whether or not an agency's actions were carried out properly.

Ombudsman staff have been working to develop the office's relationship with MPs in various ways:

• meeting with MPs and their staff to explain the complaint process followed in our office, and the reasons for decisions reached in particular cases
• regularly distributing information to MPs' parliamentary offices
• visiting MPs' electorate offices as part of our regional and rural outreach program
• making submissions to parliamentary committees (the 'Promoting good administration' chapter of this report provides more detail).