Page 3448 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 17 August 2011
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We will be among a number of jurisdictions implementing these changes, with Queensland having introduced its new public interest disclosure legislation last year and the federal Special Minister of State indicating last June that the commonwealth is currently working on a bill for introduction this year.
We have also had a number of discussions with the ACT Ombudsman in relation to the development of our public interest disclosure legislation and, indeed, more broadly, complaints handling. The government welcomes and values the role played by Mr Asher and his office in assisting members of the public who have a complaint about the ACT public service and the contribution he makes to improving the standard of service delivery in the ACT.
I am very happy to report that I had a very productive meeting with the Ombudsman last week, and he also met with the Head of Service, during which it was agreed to institute a regular quarterly meeting of that group. I would also like to thank Mr Asher for his preparedness to work in partnership with the ACT public service to improve the quality of its service delivery and decision making. We look forward to working with him, including on improving our complaints handling, in coming months.
The Ombudsman has been critical of inconsistency and lack of clarity for the public in ACT government complaints handling measures. It is not that we do not have the procedures. The issue is that they are not necessarily standardised, easily understood or necessarily easy to navigate. The Head of Service and the strategic board are taking advice on how to make sure that complaints handling processes are standardised and accessible in a way that is easily understandable as soon as possible.
Also, in relation to the 10-point plan for improving complaints handling in the public service, we believe that much of that 10-point plan is sensible and aligns with the work that is already underway in relation to standardisation of common procedures and cultural change in the APS ACT. I welcome his suggestion in relation to embracing genuine complaints as an avenue to improving service delivery, improving training for officials in complaints handling, enhancing clarity of communication and providing plain language statements for reasons for decisions.
We will, of course, ensure that as we develop procedures we pay regard to relevant guidelines, advice from the Ombudsman and processes in place in other jurisdictions. We will, however, also seek to ensure that the final approach meets the needs of our city state and makes sense in a jurisdiction of our scale. I also note that proposals to extend the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction to third-party service providers will take careful consideration, but it is not inconsistent with other jurisdictions and could move to enhance accountability for service delivery already underway.
Mr Asher also suggested that a lack of clear guidance on responsibilities of directorates is an obstacle to members of the public making complaints. While there may be an element of transitional uncertainty following the changes to the administrative arrangements in May 2011, guidance and explanatory material will be reviewed in this regard as part of the work to improve complaints handling procedures.
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