CHAPTER 1Ombudsman's review

Developing role of the Ombudsman

Review of Commonwealth Ombudsman legislation

Last year we reported that a review of the Ombudsman Act 1976 (Cth) had been submitted to the Prime Minister. The review aims to improve and modernise the legislative framework for the office. The Australian Government is considering its response.

Immigration Ombudsman

During 2006–07 the Immigration Ombudsman function, conferred on the Ombudsman in late 2005, was consolidated. We implemented new programs in monitoring and inspecting immigration compliance and detention activity, and commenced an expanded program of own motion investigations into immigration-related matters. As noted above, the office completed its investigation into the 247 cases referred to the Ombudsman and published a number of related reports. The office also continued to meet its statutory requirement to report on people held in detention for two years or more.

Postal Industry Ombudsman

The Postal Industry Ombudsman (PIO) scheme commenced operation in October 2006. In 2006–07 our office worked on raising the profile of this new function in the broader community. By the end of June 2007, five private postal operators had joined the scheme, in addition to Australia Post, and the PIO had received over a thousand approaches and complaints.

Law Enforcement Ombudsman

As reported in detail in the ’Law Enforcement’ section of Chapter 7—Looking at the agencies, the legislative regime covering the handling of complaints about the AFP changed during 2006–07. The Complaints (Australian Federal Police) Act 1981 (Complaints Act) was repealed on 30 December 2006 and replaced with Part V of the Australian Federal Police Act 1979 (AFP Act) and amendments to the Ombudsman Act.

Under the new system, the Commonwealth Ombudsman is designated as the Law Enforcement Ombudsman. In that role the Ombudsman has a responsibility to review the administration of the AFP’s handling of complaints, through inspection of AFP records, as well as investigating more serious conduct issues. During the year we worked to finalise complaints made under the Complaints Act and commenced dealing with complaints about the AFP under the Ombudsman Act. We conducted the first inspection of the AFP’s records of finalised complaints made under the AFP Act. A report on the adequacy and comprehensiveness of the AFP complaint system will be tabled in Parliament in 2007–08.