News

A NSW Ombudsman report highlights the impacts on individuals of measures taken by the NSW Government to combat COVID-19, especially for vulnerable members of the community and those who have been subject to quarantine.

Tabled in NSW Parliament today, 2020 hindsight: the first 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic also highlights the need for effective complaint handling and oversight to be designed into any government crisis response.

In the 12 months from the first Australian COVID case on 25 January 2020, the NSW Ombudsman received over 900 contacts from individuals wishing to raise complaints or concerns about their treatment or experience of the NSW government’s pandemic measures.

There is inherent potential for conflicts of interest when NSW local councils undertake their own developments, according to a new report by the NSW Ombudsman.

The report An inherent conflict of interest: councils as developer and regulator, tabled in Parliament today by Acting Ombudsman Paul Miller, has found this potential exists because there are no clear guidelines or best-practice approaches for instances when a local council is both the developer as well as being the regulator of that development.

The report also highlights an instance when such a conflict of interest led to unlawful action.

A NSW Ombudsman’s report on public sector whistleblowing shows that NSW public officials made 949 public interest disclosures (PIDs) to investigating authorities in the 2019-20 financial year.

Two thirds of those were made to ICAC by heads of public sector agencies who are required by law to report possible corrupt conduct. In addition, agencies received nearly 400 (383) reports of wrongdoing about their own agencies. Consistent with previous years, the majority (85%) of those included an allegation of corrupt conduct.

While the report shows that there were slightly fewer PIDs in 2019-20 than in 2018-19, the number of reports remains higher than earlier years, and is consistent with a long-term trend of increased reporting.

Acting NSW Ombudsman and Convenor of the NSW Child Death Review Team (CDRT), Paul Miller, has tabled the CDRT’s annual report 2019–20 in Parliament.

The CDRT is comprised of key government agencies and independent experts in child health, research and injury prevention, and aims to prevent and reduce the deaths of children in NSW.

The annual report describes the work of the CDRT over the last year. Most importantly, the report also details the extent to which the CDRT’s recommendations to prevent or reduce the likelihood of child deaths have been accepted by agencies, and the progress being made to implement the Team’s recommendations.

Read the report.

Read the media release.

Acting Ombudsman Paul Miller today tabled in Parliament the NSW Ombudsman Annual Report 2019-20. The report provides a detailed account of the Office’s work for the year, including its role in monitoring government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The report highlights the important role that oversight agencies play in NSW, especially at a time of crisis.

Read the report

Read the media release

The Acting NSW Ombudsman, Mr Paul Miller has tabled a special report to Parliament: More than shelter – addressing legal and policy gaps in supporting homeless children: A progress report.

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