• About us
• Complaints
• Our legislation
  • Australian Capital Territory
  • Australian Federal Police
  • Freedom of Information (FOI)
  • Public Interest Disclosure (PID)
  • Legal information and legislation
• Publications
• Related sites
• Recruitment
• Contact us

The office of ACT Ombudsman is created by the Ombudsman Act 1989. The Act provides that the Ombudsman is to investigate the administrative actions of ACT Government departments and agencies and sets out the limits on his jurisdiction; for example, the Ombudsman may not investigate some actions related to public sector employment, or the actions of judges and ministers. The Act provides the Ombudsman with an extensive range of powers to investigate actions following complaints or on his own motion and permits him, in some circumstances, to decline to investigate; for example, the Ombudsman may decline to investigate until a matter has been put to the relevant agency.

The Act enables the Ombudsman to report in a number of ways following an investigation, although it requires the investigation itself to be conducted in private and with fairness to anyone likely to be criticised.