Ombudsmen in Australia

See Ombudsman for the definitions and examples of other ombudsman throughout the globe.

Government ombudsman services are free to the public, like many other ombudsman and dispute resolution services, and are a means of resolving disputes outside of the court systems.

Australia has an ombudsman assigned for each state—as well as an ombudsman for the Commonwealth of Australia—as laws differ in some states and as such just one process, or policy, cannot be used across the board.

All government bodies are within the jurisdiction of the ombudsman.

The Commonwealth Ombudsman in Australia was established in 1976. The Ombudsman can investigate complaints about the actions and decisions of Australian Government departments and agencies, the services delivered by most private contractors for the Australian Government, and oversee complaint investigations conducted by the Australian Federal Police.

The Ombudsman can also investigate complaints about delays in processing Freedom of Information requests (FOI) and complaints about FOI charges. The Commonwealth Ombudsman is also the Defence Force Ombudsman, Immigration Ombudsman, Postal Industry Ombudsman, Taxation Ombudsman, Law Enforcement Ombudsman and through an arrangement with the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Government, the ACT Ombudsman. In addition, the Ombudsman has a number of statutory oversight functions in relation to law enforcement agency use of special powers, including those under the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979, Surveillance Devices Act 2004 and Part 1AB of the Crimes Act 1914. The current Acting Commonwealth Ombudsman is Colin Neave.

The various states in Australia have (variously described) state Ombudsman offices, with similar jurisdiction as described above, except over state government authorities. There is much collaboration in an academic sense between Ombudsmen in Australia, given the highly similar nature of their roles (despite differing jurisdictions). The offices frequently work on joint projects, such as those addressing difficult client behaviour.

The first NSW Ombudsman was appointed in 1975 and the legislation became operative in May that year. Since then, there have been many changes – public authorities have merged and separated and there have been six different Ombudsman. Professor John McMillan is the current Acting Ombudsman and was appointed for a period of two years from August 2015.

The Ombudsman for the Northern Territory is independent of Government and provides a free service to the public. The current Ombudsman is Carolyn Richards. The First Northern Territory Ombudsman was Harry C. Giese.

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