CHAPTER 5how the ombudsman helped people

Introduction

The major role of the Ombudsman's office is to provide a response and some kind of resolution to the thousands of complaints and other approaches that we receive each year.

This chapter, first introduced in last year's annual report, illustrates that theme by drawing together examples of how the Ombudsman's office helps people resolve their complaints, often without investigation or without any adverse finding against an Australian Government agency. This facilitation of effective complaint resolution accounts for the great bulk of our work each year. In reporting on the work of the office, it is important to emphasise our range of complaint-handling methods and techniques, and the varied ways in which we provide assistance to the public.

'... effective complaint resolution accounts for the great bulk of our work each year.'

A common complaint against government and other large organisations is that individual interests are easily submerged by other considerations. This grievance has gained intensity in an age of automated decision-making and bulk processing. And yet at the end of every decision or process is a person. A chief reason for the existence of an Ombudsman office is to focus attention on the individual impact of government administration. We aim to tailor our response to the individual problem, but see broad themes emerging that are taken up in this chapter.

Some of the themes discussed below, such as our complaint referral work and liaison with members of parliament, continue on from similar themes identified in last year's report. Others discussed include our ability to work around a problem and the use of mediation and conciliation in complaint resolution.