Feature 1

commonwealth ombudsman—keeping pace with public sector change

The core role of the Commonwealth Ombudsman has been unchanged for nearly thirty years. It is to receive and investigate complaints from members of the public about government administrative action occurring in any Australian Government agency, anywhere in Australia.

That stability and tradition has been matched by adaptation and evolution over nearly thirty years in the structure and procedures of the office. One illustration of that change is that the office now hosts a range of specialist functions that sit alongside its generalist role and jurisdiction. The Commonwealth Ombudsman also holds the separately titled roles of ACT Ombudsman, Defence Force Ombudsman and Taxation Ombudsman. Legislation to add the roles of Immigration Ombudsman and Postal Industry Ombudsman has been proposed. More is said about those and other specialist roles on other feature pages of this report.

The creation of the specialist Ombudsman roles is in response to a growing trend in government and society to call for specialist review mechanisms in designated areas of government. The Ombudsman's office has followed through on that development by creating specialist teams within the office, and by targeted recruitment, training and outreach activities.

The way that complaints are handled and investigations are undertaken within the office has also undergone great change. A major activity of the office now is to monitor complaint handling by Australian Government agencies. The office has learned over time that complaints against government are often best resolved informally, quickly and knowledgeably in the area in which a complaint arises. Direct agency handling of complaints also promotes greater accountability and responsiveness in service delivery.

A related development is that the Ombudsman's office now gives comparatively more emphasis to finding a practical solution and remedy to a problem than to passing judgment on whether the complaint arose from the fault of the agency or the misapprehension of the complainant. Accompanying that change in focus has been the development of a new complaints management system (being implemented in 2005–06) to better manage complaint data and statistical recording in the office.