On the text of the Ombudsman Act 1974:
- A parliamentary committee can veto a proposed appointment, monitors the Office, examines its annual reports and, since 2024, examines its budget. The Commonwealth Ombudsman has no such committee.
- Nothing authorises the same committee "to reconsider a decision to investigate, not to investigate or to discontinue investigation of a particular complaint".
- A complainant has no right of appeal. They are owed the decision and the reasons. They may go to the Supreme Court on a question of the Ombudsman's jurisdiction, or with leave if they allege bad faith.
- The Ombudsman and staff cannot be sued for anything done in executing the Act unless in bad faith, and only with the Supreme Court's leave. In 2017 the Court of Appeal held that this immunity barred a senior police officer's claims for declarations and injunctions about a published Ombudsman report.
- There is no clause requiring the Act or the Office to be reviewed.
The committee's last two reviews of the Office's annual reports, in 2024 and 2025, made no finding or recommendation about its complaint handling.
Sources: Ombudsman Act 1974 ss 6A, 15, 31B, 35A; Kaldas v Barbour [2017] NSWCA 275; Joint Committee Reports 1/58 and 3/58.