The Commonwealth Ombudsman, Professor John McMillan, has welcomed the Australian Government’s proposal to establish an office of Postal Industry Ombudsman within the office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman.

Legislation to establish the office of Postal Industry Ombudsman was introduced in Parliament on 12 August 2004.

Professor McMillan commented: ‘The creation of a separate office of Postal Industry Ombudsman is an important step in safeguarding consumer rights in the postal industry. Each year in Australia the public and business send and receive hundreds of millions of postal items. Problems will occur, and it is important that there is an independent, external, high profile agency to deal with complaints. Creating an ombudsman is now a recognised way in Australia for ensuring integrity and professionalism in complaint investigation.’

The office of the Postal Industry Ombudsman (PIO) will:

• take over the existing role of the Commonwealth Ombudsman of investigating postal complaints against Australia Post (the Ombudsman receives about one thousand complaints each year)
• have jurisdiction to investigate complaints against private sector postal operators that register to participate in the scheme
• develop a costing regime in accordance with Regulations for the scheme to be self-funding and for the cost of investigations to be charged on a proportionate basis to participants in the scheme, and
• have available the normal powers of an ombudsman, to require information or documents, and to publish findings; and be required to observe procedural fairness in investigations.

The scheme is distinctive, in conferring jurisdiction upon a single ombudsman to investigate complaints in the public and the private sector. This private sector jurisdiction poses a new challenge for the Commonwealth Ombudsman.

Professor McMillan said he expected that many private sector postal operators will register to participate in the scheme. ‘There is a consumer advantage for business in being prepared to accept independent investigation of complaints. Industry operators that participate in professional complaint handling schemes soon learn that they gain valuable consumer feedback on their products and services.’

Professor McMillan said he looked forward to working with the postal industry to establish in-house customer complaint handling procedures to supplement the postal industry ombudsman scheme. This will ensure that customers receive prompt and helpful service about their complaints. It will also mean that the Postal Industry Ombudsman can concentrate on the more serious or intractable complaints.

The scheme is expected to commence within six months of the Postal Industry Ombudsman legislation being enacted in Parliament.

Date of release: 23 August 2004