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PART 4—WHAT WE DO Indigenous complaint-handling within and across government. Eventually, the office hopes to use this forum to develop and implement some agreed best practice Indigenous complaint and feedback principles. Right to Complain Strategy The office has established a working group made up of government and non-government stakeholders focused on improving the uptake rate and use of government complaint and feedback mechanisms by Indigenous people and communities. The group aims to develop a communication strategy promoting people’s right to complain and/or raise issues or concerns, targeting Indigenous people and communities and encouraging the view that complaints and feedback are important and can make a difference to the individual and more broadly. Australian and New Zealand Ombudsman Association (ANZOA) Interest Group The office is leading an ANZOA interest group made up of participants from Australian and New Zealand government and industry ombudsmen. Meeting regularly, the group will focus on sharing information, contacts and resources, as well as supporting a more coordinated approach to Indigenous outreach and engagement between member organisations. It aims to establish a coordinated approach to encourage the agencies and organisations the office oversees to make their complaint processes more accessible and effective for Indigenous people. Information Sharing Portal The office developed an online platform using Govdex to facilitate the sharing of ideas, contacts, tools, strategies, resources and information to support and improve Indigenous complaint-handling. The portal is available for use by community groups, government agencies oversight bodies and other interested parties, and will support the work of the various working groups, interest groups and communities of practice focused on improving Indigenous complaint-handling. POSTAL INDUSTRY OMBUDSMAN Case Study Sam has a Post Office (PO) Box at his local post office. After receiving no mail for over a month, he received a few letters and a collection card. When he took the card into the Post Office, he received a bundle of undelivered mail. Post Office staff said that the mail had been bundled as it had not been collected and because the PO Box was too full. Sam asked Australia Post for an explanation. He was not satisfied with the response, so he complained to the office. As a result of the office’s investigation, Australia Post agreed to consider the actions taken by the Post Office staff and review its procedures for dealing with uncollected mail. Australia Post also provided a written explanation and apology and refunded the service fee as a gesture of goodwill. Overview The Ombudsman is also the Postal Industry Ombudsman (PIO). The PIO role was established in 2006 to provide an industry Ombudsman service for postal operators and their customers. Australia Post is a mandatory member of the scheme, while Private Postal Operations (PPOs) can register voluntarily. As at 30 June 2016, there were six PPOs on the register. The PIO can investigate complaints about postal or similar services provided by Australia Post and PPOs. The Ombudsman can also investigate complaints about administrative actions and decisions taken by Australia Post. Most commonly, people complain to the PIO about lost letters or parcels, delivery issues (including the failure to attempt delivery of parcels and incorrect safe drop procedures), and delay in the arrival of postal items. Statistics In 2015–16, the office received 5113 in-jurisdiction complaints, a nine per cent decrease on the previous financial year. In general, the number of complaints has grown steadily since the PIO was established. 40 | COMMONWEALTH OMBUDSMAN ANNUAL REPORT | 2015–16
Figure 3: All approaches for Australia Post (Commonwealth and Postal Industry Ombudsman) PART 4—WHAT WE DO Most complaints were about Australia Post (5103). Only ten complaints concerned Private Postal Operators. The office did not investigate all complaints received. The main reasons for declining were that: • the complaint was outside the office’s jurisdiction (for example, it was about employment or not concerning a postal or similar service matter) • the complainant could not show that he or she had made a reasonable attempt to resolve the issue with Australia Post or the PPO, or • it was assessed that no better practical outcome was likely. In 2015–16 the office finalised 168 investigations, 141 of them were under the PIO jurisdiction and 27 under the Commonwealth Ombudsman jurisdiction. Second-chance transfers— Australia Post The office has an arrangement with Australia Post where complaints can be referred to them. These are usually uncomplicated matters or those the office thinks Australia Post should be able to offer a satisfactory outcome. Most transferred complaints were successfully resolved by Australia Post. However, complainants can return to our office if they are dissatisfied with Australia Post’s response. In 2015–16 the office transferred 1221 complaints to Australia Post for reconsideration. Around 12 per cent (152) of these complainants returned to our office. The office investigated a small proportion of these, but were generally satisfied with Australia Post’s response and no investigation was warranted. 2015–16 | COMMONWEALTH OMBUDSMAN ANNUAL REPORT | 41
Page 1 and 2: ANNUAL REPORT 15-16
Page 3 and 4: HIGHLIGHTS In 2015-16 we received a
Page 5 and 6: CREDITS Date of publication: Septem
Page 7 and 8: GUIDE TO THE REPORT GUIDE TO THE RE
Page 9 and 10: CONTENTS PART 1—REVIEW BY THE OMB
Page 11 and 12: PART 1— REVIEW BY THE OMBUDSMAN
Page 13 and 14: Private Health Insurance The integr
Page 15 and 16: PART 2—OVERVIEW OF THE OFFICE PAR
Page 17 and 18: PART 2—OVERVIEW OF THE OFFICE vi.
Page 19 and 20: PART 2—OVERVIEW OF THE OFFICE Geo
Page 21 and 22: PART 3— REPORT ON PERFORMANCE
Page 23 and 24: Annual Performance Statement As req
Page 25 and 26: The office is required to carry out
Page 27 and 28: Methodology The extent to which the
Page 29 and 30: Strategic Objectives Objective 1 Pr
Page 31 and 32: PART 4— WHAT WE DO
Page 33 and 34: The office investigated seven per c
Page 35 and 36: When someone receives an employment
Page 37: compliance reviews; and the creatio
Page 41 and 42: efore arrival at Australia Post’s
Page 43 and 44: who wish to claim a refund of the G
Page 45 and 46: Figure 6: Number of reports receive
Page 47 and 48: Information sharing Limitations on
Page 49 and 50: Figure 7: Overseas Students Ombudsm
Page 51 and 52: Student Feedback “Hi, Thank you v
Page 53 and 54: PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE OMBUDSMAN
Page 55 and 56: National Health Benefits (Onemedifu
Page 57 and 58: INFORMATION Complaints: 599 Key iss
Page 59 and 60: Issue Sub-issue 2013-14 2014-15 201
Page 61 and 62: Complaints about hospitals, doctors
Page 63 and 64: Complaint outcomes Most cases (72 p
Page 65 and 66: Inspections of covert, intrusive or
Page 67 and 68: and templates. They are based on le
Page 69 and 70: Of these cases, the office finalise
Page 71 and 72: PIDs received The overall number of
Page 73 and 74: Once an internal PID is allocated f
Page 75 and 76: Of the 29 PIDs which we accepted, 1
Page 77 and 78: indicate a high level of satisfacti
Page 79 and 80: 2. Australian Postal Corporation 14
Page 81 and 82: 10. Australian Broadcasting Corpora
Page 83 and 84: 43. Department Foreign Affairs and
Page 85 and 86: 41. Corporations and Markets Adviso
Page 87 and 88: Table 15: PID investigations comple
Page 89 and 90:
9. Attorney-General’s Department
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PART 4—WHAT WE DO The Members and
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CASE STUDY—Commonwealth Ombudsman
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PART 5—MANAGEMENT AND ACCOUNTABIL
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Page 101 and 102:
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PART 6— APPENDICES
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2015-16 | COMMONWEALTH OMBUDSMAN AN
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OFFICE OF THE COMMONWEALTH OMBUDSMA
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Note 5: Non-Financial Assets Proper
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Note 8: Provisions 0 0 $'000 $'000
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Appendix 2— Statistics Office of
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Finalised Remedies Received Cat 1 C
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Appendix 4—Entity Resource Statem
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PART 7— REFERENCES
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Term Complaint Controlled operation
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Term Lifetime Health Cover (LHC) Me
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Term The office The Ombudsman Unlaw
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Figures Figure 1: Executive and Sen
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Ref 17AD(c) 17AD(c)(i); 16F 17AD(c)
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Ref 17AG(4)(c)(iii) Part of report
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Ref 17AD(f) Part of report Descript
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Australian Commission for Law Enfor
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complaint investigations, 16, 24, 5
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detention inspections, 48 Detention
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I IDP Education Brisbane Internatio
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L lack of notification (private hea
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P Pacific Governance and Anti-Corru
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Q Queensland Ombudsman and PID Wiki
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T Telecommunications (Interception
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