BackThe New South Wales (NSW) Ombudsman tabled its Annual Report 2023–24 and Child Death Review Team (CDRT) Annual Report 2023–24 in Parliament on 31 October 2024.
The Annual Report revealed that 14,770 actionable complaints were received by this office during the 2023–24 period – an increase of 13% from the previous year. These included complaints about state government, local government, privately managed correctional centres, public universities, NSW Government-funded community service providers, and other public authorities.
This office took further investigatory action on 3,429 actionable complaints – an increase of 27% from the previous financial year, and referred a further 1,135 actionable complaints directly to the agency complained about, for their further action.
The NSW Ombudsman also tabled 7 reports in Parliament during the year, including 3 special reports, being the Formal investigations summary report, Revenue NSW — The lawfulness of its garnishee order process, and A map of automated decision-making in the NSW Public Sector.
A major development for the NSW public sector during this reporting period was the commencement of the Public Interest Disclosures Act 2022 (PID Act). The new PID Act is a significant legal reform for the NSW public sector, providing a framework that facilitates reporting of wrongdoing and strengthened protections for those who ‘speak up’. Agencies are required under the Public Interest Disclosures Act 2022 (PID Act) to report certain information about the voluntary public interest disclosures (PIDs) they have received, and how they have dealt with those voluntary PIDs, in an annual return to the Ombudsman.
The NSW Ombudsman also tabled the Child Death Review Team (CDRT) Annual Report 2023–24, outlining the work of the CDRT over the last year and detailing 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 recommendations.
You can download the full media release, the NSW Ombudsman Annual Report 2023-24 and the NSW Child Death Review Team Annual Report 2023-24 by clicking on the text.
Source: NSW Ombudsman, Australia
