Chadwick Steve: Offices of Parliament — Address to Governor-General 
Chadwick Steve: Offices of Parliament — Address to Governor-General 
[Volume:672;Page:18479] 
Hon STEVE CHADWICK (Labour) 
: 
 The Officers of Parliament Committee is a very interesting committee. The Acting Leader of the House has quite rightly pointed out the three votes that were considered. Today I want to focus on the Office of the Ombudsmen because I found the scrutiny of that office particularly interesting. It put the Chief Ombudsman Beverley Wakem who does a wonderful job under quite substantial pressure. Those pressures are mounting because it is a small office with an increasing workload. The Minister mentioned the Canterbury earthquake and it was interesting that the Office of the Ombudsmen’s office in the South Island was affected by the earthquake. We had no problem with keeping the South Island office after some examination as to whether it was needed. We also looked at the Wellington office as its lease is expiring and it will need to assess some other accommodation offers. 
The most interesting aspect of the scrutiny of this vote was the increase of $50000—from $320000 to $370000—to clear a backlog of inquires. The Minister alluded to the fact that the Office of the Ombudsmen must investigate all complaints even if they are vexatious or frivolous and I think that requires as the committee agreed a legislative change. I hope that the Minister before he goes gets that piece of work finished for the Office of the Ombudsmen. It is crazy that it has to open all inquiries and complaints then scrutinise all inquiries and complaints to see whether there is substance to them. That wastes a lot of the Ombudsmen’s time. It is not a “nice-to-have”; it is something they must do so the backlog the tail of complaints blows out. I think this legislative change is an initiative that the Government should undertake. 
It is also interesting to look at the parallel with other commissioner offices and their ability to resolve complaints. There are some concerns coming back to us in Opposition about the Health and Disability Commissioner who has put out only five reports in the first 10 months of his new term of office compared with an average of 50 under the previous Health and Disability Commissioner. We want to look at relativity in the ability to resolve complaints and there is definitely a blowout in the decisions pending that did not sit comfortably on the shoulders of the Chief Ombudsman. 
I think the Minister should also look at a closure target for closure of complaints for these offices because they are charged with promoting the public’s rights and with getting answers to inquiries. The Office of the Ombudsmen is the one place the public can go to get closure on their complaints. The office looks at complaints from Government departments and every electorate MP knows that we receive these complaints from city district or regional councils; from school boards of trustees; from universities polytechs and other tertiary education initiatives; and from district health boards. Heaven knows that those complaints will be a measure of how the present Government is starving these departments of funding over time. We want to know that we close that loop of investigations and get feedback very quickly about budget constraints that will impact on those departments especially with the Budget that we will no doubt have to face next week. I think the Minister should look at a closure target for these offices and make sure that the public know that if they complain to the Office of the Ombudsmen there would not be a blowout of over 2 years to resolve some of those complaints. 
I also want to mention the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. That was a convention signed in September 2008 by Ruth Dyson when she was the Minister for Disability Issues and I want it on the record that I congratulate Ms Dyson on her work. But that work has put some more pressure on the Office of the Ombudsmen because now it must monitor and report back to the United Nations. That increased the pressure on the office and it needed more funding for that. I am more than happy with that; it is not a “nice-to-have”. It is part of our article 33 that we must report on and $230000 was allocated to that task from this Government. 
There was another interesting aspect in that the existing scope for the Office of the Ombudsmen was changed by this committee to look at an appropriation limited to the investigation and resolution of complaints the provision of advice relating to central and local government administrative actions and monitoring compliance with international conventions. We brought that more up to date than the current scope. 
This work is very important. I want to congratulate the Office of the Ombudsmen on undertaking its duties with limited resources I have to say and with few staff. They do a remarkable job but I think there are some changes the Minister in the chair should take notice of. Thank you.