CALL FOR DEPUTY OMBUDSMAN POSITION MUST BE MET

The Tasmanian Greens today supported the Ombudsman, Mr Simon Allston, in his call for a funded Deputy Ombudsman position which the Ombudsman Tasmania Annual Report 2007-08 reveals the Labor government had knocked back without explanation. [i] Greens Leader Nick McKim MP said that the Attorney-General, Lara Giddings, must explain fully the basis on which the government rejected the Ombudsman’s funding application for a Deputy position, and offer a guarantee that the proposal will be implemented in the coming State Budget. Mr McKim also pointed out that the Ombudsman has proposed creating the Deputy position as a mechanism by which to rearrange resourcing to facilitate the establishment of an investigations unit within his office in order to conduct major investigations which the Ombudsman currently does not have the time or resources to do.

“The Ombudsman makes it quite clear in his Annual Report that his request for additional funding to establish a Deputy Ombudsman position would assist in the establishment of an investigation unit by the freeing up of one senior salary,” Mr McKim said. “The Ombudsman does have a responsibility to conduct major investigations into matters arising from his jurisdictions, and it is of serious concern to learn that Mr Allston and his team are constrained from fulfilling this responsibility due to high workloads and inadequate resourcing.” “Mr Allston has proposed that the establishment of a separate investigation unit within his office would assist in dealing with major investigations arising and that the creation of a Deputy Ombudsman position would help manage workload and resourcing, which all sounds very reasonable.” “In contrast, the government rejecting such an application without reason appears unreasonable.” “Labor has repeatedly pointed to the Ombudsman’s Office as an example of an independent oversight body whenever the call for an ICAC-style body is made, yet it is now evident that the government is happy to leave this Office struggling under a huge workload and to also reject proposals that would improve the Office’s ability to fulfil its independent oversight functions.” Mr McKim has also called for Labor to provide the additional funding that was requested to help meet the recurrent costs associated with the Ombudsman Office’s new case management database, which had been rejected by the government as well. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [i] Ombudsman Tasmania Annual Report 2007-08;page 6..

Thu Nov 2008 03:11 (1 month, 2 weeks ago)