The Commonwealth Ombudsman’s 2004–05 annual report was tabled in Parliament today.

The report details the work carried out across the broad range of areas within the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. Highlights include:

• investigating complaints made about 105 Australian Government departments and agencies
• finalising 17,441 complaints (similar to previous year), and handling 12,013 other approaches (up 33%)
• providing assistance and advice to more than 39,000 people who telephoned the office for help (up 21%)
• completing five own motion and major investigations, with all Ombudsman recommendations being accepted by agencies
• taking on added responsibility to inspect records of use of surveillance devices in criminal investigations by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Crime Commission (ACC), and the use of coercive powers by the Building Industry Taskforce
• taking on the new function to assess the situation of long-term immigration detainees and report to the Parliament
• conducting 65 outreach activities, which together covered each State and Territory
• co-sponsoring a three-year study, entitled ‘Whistling while they work’, on whistleblowing protection laws across Australia.

The core activity of the Ombudsman’s office is to handle complaints and inquiries from members of the public about Australian Government administrative action. The majority of complaints received (13,489 or 78%) were against five agencies with a service delivery or client contact function – Centrelink (7,699), the Child Support Agency (2,094), the Australian Taxation Office (1,633), Australia Post (1,190) and the Department of Immigration (873).

The Ombudsman, Prof. John McMillan, noted: ‘Our objective in handling thousands of complaints and inquiries about government is to provide a quick and effective resolution for members of the public. There are recurring themes in complaints to the Ombudsman – bad record keeping by agencies, incorrect oral advice, delay in decision-making, poor communication with the public, and faulty computer-generated notices. Many people turn to the Ombudsman’s office each year for assistance in resolving those difficulties.’

Inspecting records of use of surveillance devices in criminal investigations by the AFP and the ACC adds to an existing role of the office in inspecting law enforcement records relating to telecommunications interceptions and controlled operations. ‘Compliance auditing has now developed as a distinct third function of the office, in addition to its traditional functions of complaint investigation and own motion investigations,’ said Prof. McMillan. ‘The records inspection function of the office is an important mechanism for ensuring compliance with statutory procedures that exist as a safeguard for members of the public.’

This year’s report highlights some of the major areas scrutinised by the Ombudsman. One of these related to a review of the Australian Defence Force’s Redress of Grievance process, conducted jointly with the Department of Defence. The ADF accepted, and are taking action to implement, the 72 recommendations in the report. Recommendations included the need to increase staffing levels within the department’s Complaint Resolution Agency, to provide further training for investigation officers, to improve management information systems to introduce performance management and reporting standards, and to seek changes to the legislation and policies on complaint handing.

Conditions in immigration detention facilities (IDFs) continued to be a source of complex complaints. Ombudsman staff made regular visits to IDFs to discuss complaints from detainees. ‘Some of the complaints related to access to medical services, with detainees concerned about delays in referrals to specialists and other appropriate services, the frequency of visits by medical staff to IDFs, and the quality of medical services,’ said Prof McMillan. ‘We also pursued the issue of detainees being placed in more restrictive accommodation units at IDFs, whether the units are appropriate and adequate as a behaviour management tool and whether due regard is paid to each individual’s circumstances.’

Prof. McMillan stated: ‘My office will continue to monitor these issues and others through complaints from detainees, and through my expanded role in assessing the situation of long-term immigration detainees and investigating matters involving Australian citizens or other people lawfully in Australia who have been subject to detention or removal from Australia.’

The report also contains sections on complaints about Australia Post (pp 27–29), defence (pp 41–44), freedom of information (pp 64–65), immigration (pp 45–50), law enforcement (pp 51–57), social support agencies (pp 34–40; pp 58–59) and taxation (pp 30–33). Complaint themes are covered in the chapters on ‘How the Ombudsman helped people’ (pp 67–72) and ‘Problem areas in government decision making’ (pp 74–77).

Full text of the Ombudsman’s annual report is available at www.ombudsman.gov.au.

Date of release: 28 October 2005