Editors --- "The Commonwealth Ombudsman" [2010] AdminRw 22; (2010) 59 Admin Review 77

• The Commonwealth Ombudsman

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The Commonwealth Ombudsman

In April 2009 the Commonwealth Ombudsman published the Better Practice Guide to Complaint Handling. The first guide had been published by the office in 1997; the new guide takes account of the substantial development in complaint handling practice in government in the past 10 years.

On 3 August 2009 the Commonwealth Ombudsman published a report entitled Putting Things Right: compensating for defective administration, which examines the operation of the Compensation for Detriment Caused by Defective Administration Scheme. Among other things, the Ombudsman’s recommendations cover the following:

• providing greater visibility for the scheme, so that the public knows they can ask to be compensated for government error

• establishing an interdepartmental advisory or review panel to deal with disputed or exceptional claims under the scheme and to have a

‘best-practice’ leadership role

• using the potential offered by information technology to improve case monitoring, provide support for decision making and capture feedback

• dealing with ‘administrative drift’ (needless delays) in finalising cases.

The report is available at www.ombudsman.gov.au/files/investigation_2009_11.pdf.

In November 2009 the Commonwealth Ombudsman published an issues paper, Mistakes and Unintended Consequences—a safety net approach, which examines the problems that can arise, and options for resolving them, when legislation has unforeseen consequences that affect individuals harshly and are at odds with the intent of the regime. The paper also looks at circumstances where an agency acknowledges it has erred when making a decision but has no explicit power to reconsider and remake the decision.

The report is available at www.ombudsman.gov.au/docs/submissions/issues_paper_mistakes_and_unintended_consequences.pdf.