In 2010, ANZOA began a public and ongoing campaign for stronger controls on use of the term Ombudsman in Australia.

Our concern lies with the increasing inappropriate use of the term to describe bodies that do not conform to, or show an understanding of, the accepted Ombudsman model and its over 200 years' history. Examples include bodies with regulatory functions and/or advocacy roles.

We supported this campaign with a media release and policy statement, setting out six essential criteria (addressing independence, jurisdiction, powers, accessibility, procedural fairness and accountability) which we believe the public are entitled to expect of any office described as an Ombudsman.

We make the distinction between Australia and New Zealand because in New Zealand the term is protected by legislation.

Our campaign has included letters to the heads of all Australian State and Commonwealth departments and all Members of Parliament and submissions to a number of 'ombudsman' proposals.

RELATED TO THIS TOPIC:

What's in a name? Use of the term Ombudsman - paper presented by then Commonwealth Ombudsman,
John McMillan, to the ANZOA Conference (April 2008)

ANZOA submission on the Fair Work 'ombudsman' (March 2009)

ANZOA submission on proposals for 'ombudsman' offices in the airline industry (Feb 2010)

ANZOA Chair's opinion piece in The Age & Sydney Morning Herald (May 2010)

Australian Financial Counselling & Credit Reform Association backs ANZOA's call (May 2010)

Acting Commonwealth Ombudsman's opinion piece in The Canberra Times (June 2010)

ANZOA submission to the Australian Parliament's Joint Select Committee on Cyber-Safety (June 2010)

ANZOA submission to the National Legal Profession Reform Taskforce (June 2010)

ANZOA submission to the NSW Ombudsman's Issues Paper: Council Internal Ombudsman - 'Independent Ear' or 'Complaints Commissioner'? (October 2010)

ANZOA submission to the Options paper: Resolution of Small Business (business-to-business) disputes (July 2011)

ANZOA submission to the Economics References Committee's Current inquiry: The impacts of supermarket price decisions on the dairy industry (August 2011)

Ombudsman services in Australia and New Zealand (March 2011)