BackWe all strive to make a difference in life, but not too many people can look back on a life quite so well-lived, who helped so many thousands of people, as Charles Norman Geschke, popularly known as Norm.
Norman was Victoria’s second Ombudsman, following a distinguished career with the RAAF and six years as Victoria’s first Director of Consumer Affairs. A passion for fairness, and protecting the rights of the vulnerable, were an early hallmark of his work and he occupied the role, dispensing wisdom and justice, for 14 years from 1980 to 1994.
What comes across from his many official reports is how much he cared about people, the man or woman in the street, sometimes literally. In his last report to Parliament he described saving the wooden kiosk at Clifton Hill station, so that the lady kiosk operator did not have to sell her wares from a portable trolley at 6 am in the Melbourne winter. In an earlier report he gave advice about lost TAB tickets: “the golden rules of punting are check your tickets for correctness and don’t lose them”.
When he retired in 1994 his successor noted that he was the longest serving Ombudsman in the world. He was also active on the world stage – as Executive Secretary and Director of the International Ombudsman Institute, who presented him with honorary life membership in recognition of his outstanding service to the international Ombudsman community.
Debora Glass, current Victorian Ombudswoman, once asked him what he was proudest of in his tenure, and he told her it was the country visits programme and his employment of the first female investigation officers.
The essence of the role of Ombudsman is, in the words of its early proponents, to ‘humanise the bureaucracy,’ to address the imbalance of power between the individual and the State. Norman, with his powerful sense of humanity in all its foibles and occasional absurdity; his integrity and compassion, his courage and moral authority, was the embodiment of the role.
To read the full obituary please refer to the download section below.
Source: Victorian Ombudsman, Australia
