A promise of targets
The NSW Ombudsman last published complaint-handling targets in 2017-18. They were modest: 80 per cent of complaints acknowledged and assessed within 10 days, 95 per cent finalised within 12 months.
Blog
Shorter pieces on issues worth recording that would overwhelm the main report.
308 review requests then, 16 now
A person unhappy with how the NSW Ombudsman handled their complaint can ask for a review. In 2003-04, 308 people did, 4.2 per cent of complaints finalised; 64 of those requests concerned police complaints, a function that has since left the Office. In 2024-25 the Office received 16, from 16,658...
Numbers that move
Some figures in the NSW Ombudsman's reports change from one report to the next.
What complainants said in 2000
In May and June 2000 the NSW Ombudsman surveyed everyone whose complaint its general team had determined in the previous year. Thirty-two per cent replied. "Only 56% of respondents said that the reasons for our final decisions were clearly explained." "The level of confidence in the knowledge...
Who watches the NSW Ombudsman?
On the text of the Ombudsman Act 1974:
The Ombudsman’s systems cannot count how often it uses its main power
Section 15 of the Ombudsman Act is the heart of the job. It is the power to form an opinion that a government action was unlawful, unreasonable, unjust or wrong, and to report on it.
Six things the annual report used to tell you
Read 24 years of Commonwealth Ombudsman annual reports in order and you can watch the tables disappear.
The year agency error fell from 14 per cent to 1 per cent
In 2004-05 the Ombudsman found agency error or deficiency in 14 per cent of the complaint issues it investigated. In 2005-06 the figure was 1 per cent.
The phone message that cut approaches by a third
In November 2012 the Ombudsman's Office introduced "a more comprehensive telephone queueing system with auto-attendant messaging". Callers heard recorded information before reaching a person.
“A great opportunity to effectively co-write the report”
When the Ombudsman's Office began investigating Centrelink's automated debt system in January 2017, it sent the Department of Human Services a draft outline of the report it had not yet written and invited comment.
Detention oversight on about $300,000 a year
Since 2018 the Commonwealth Ombudsman has been Australia's National Preventive Mechanism for Commonwealth places of detention under a United Nations anti-torture treaty. That covers immigration detention, military detention and some Australian Federal Police facilities.
Numbers that do not match in the Ombudsman’s own report
A body whose work is checking other agencies' administration might be expected to check its own annual report. Some figures in recent reports do not agree with each other.