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CIVIL LAW

Ombudsman

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The Office of the Ombudsman is situated in Wellington but is flexible enough to travel around the country providing assistance to citizens who have concerns or grievances about government departments or local bodies.

The Ombudsman can also investigate most statutory bodies and is also the final judge in relation to complaints that an organisation has not provided information under the Official Information Act 1982.

The Office of the Ombudsman is now covered by the Ombudsmen Act 1975 and this Act can be immediately accessed below.

We also provide you with a direct link to the Government legislation site where you can look up ALL Acts of Parliament and Regulations and Rules. An Act is also known as a Statute. A Regulation is also sometimes known as a Rule. This Government legislation site is still going through some teething problems. But you will be able to access all legislation and find specific Acts and Rules and individual sections.

Statutes
Statutory Regulations
Local & Private Acts

The Ombudsman is technically an officer of our Parliament. He or she is appointed by the Governor General. The Ombudsman reports to Parliament each year.

There are several Ombudsmen (or women) and the job of the Ombudsman is to act as an investigator or a person who oversees complaints against bureaucracy.

The position is often seen as a very important protection against unfair treatment or outright mistakes or officialdom or bureaucrats in local government and national government.

We can assure you that the Ombudsman’s office investigates complaints very carefully indeed. The Ombudsman is skilled in all aspects of sta-

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Feedback/Reviews/Blogs
Feedback/Blogs/Reviews from related topic: Damages
"I found this interesting. I want to sue for punitive damages and I was interested to learn that our courts are pretty conservative. I think the Welfare have quite wrongly taken my kids and I have found out that the affidavit they gave to a Judge to get an order to uplift them was known to the Welfare to be incorrect. They told the Judge that I had drug convictions but when I found out 5 months ago that they thought that I proved then to them that this was untrue yet I have now found that they have still put this false evidence in an affidavit. But they have also told other people about my "drug convictions". You have to watch these people. (name witheld) - May 2007"
Feedback/Blogs/Reviews from related topic: Damages
"I used to hear all sorts of stories about how some officers lie in the course of their work and thought it was probably rubbish. In most cases, officers work with integrity under difficult circumstances. However, I've just had first hand experience of an officer's lack of honesty in relation to a traffic offence. A kindergarten released private information about ourselves and our child to a policeman investigating an incident. They may have done so lawfully, thats a matter for someone else to decide. But then that policeman, on his official jobsheet, outrightly lied and said the information had come from another party (we have proved it did not).
The kindy refuses to tell us the basis on which they felt release of the info was warranted (i.e. the story the officer spun to them), or what information they gave to him. Since the jobsheet was falsified, we cant get it from there either, and we hardly trust Mr Plod to give us an accurate account now, can we?
Are they not obliged to tell to explain their handling of our private information, lawfully or otherwise?
Is there a provision or statute anywhere that allows officers to provide false statements on official documents to cover-up where they obtained information from?

Netlaw replies: We do know of a number of cases where police officers have lied and falsified evidence. We sincerely believe it is very rare in NZ. However, if you have clear evidence of this, not just a difference of opinion, then you must report it to the Police Complaints Authortity as well as the Commissioner of Police."

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