Victorian Ombudsman

The staff often have combative attitudes towards the public who contact the office.

They appear very rude, overtalking, talking down, abrasive and lack of appetite to hear about any illegal, potentially corrupt actions, with dismissive attitudes due to a lack of understanding of the issues presented by people who can be genuine victims of some injustices within the public system.

This is where the ombudsman supposedly safeguards those organizations against any possible misconduct being practised there.
Instead, the staff deflect public concerns to other organizations that are not intended to deal with or can assist with such issues that are squarely defined within the ombudsman’s jurisdiction and according to the published details on the website.

“WorkSafe We help resolve complaints about WorkSafe, its five insurance agents, and self-insurers. Find out how we can help. ”

The staff act like a law firm’s contracted call centre, equipped with glass jaws, no patient to hear from the public who decided to seek the assistance from the office of the Ombudsman and possibly to report any potential crimes that may be committed by any government’s related departments.

The experience of contacting this office to complain about any possible wrongdoings is simply abhorrent.

It is awful enough to prevent any level-headed person from believing that accountability and justice are still guarded in the public system or ever having a desire to make any contact with the office ever again.

Ironically, the public only hears the Victorian Ombudsman in the media, when something adverse is to be said about the current ALP’s Gov.

Really depends on who you get. I was very fortunate to get Ben and he tried to help.

I then had another matter, IBAC suggested I reach VO to try and get assistance but this time I got John and he quickly closed the matter without going further. Even though, VO is about holding the Victorian public sector accountable to the people of Victoria.

Also, I've clearly indicated in the form that my preferred contact is via email (I like having paper trail when dealing with public sector) and John still contacted me via phone. Why?

I had a legitimate complaint about noise pollution with the Mansfield Shire council and I thought the ombudsman would help me in holding the council to account for the blatant inaction regarding this matter. After a first investigation the ombudsman just left out family hanging in no man's land.

The follow up is woeful, they just don't care.
I am so disappointed with them, it's a waste of tax payers money

I want to thank Ben for his efforts with resolving my situation with Fines Victoria. Ben was very prompt with sending thru my complaint and situation to Fines Vic whom hadn’t bothered to do anything but keep putting Late fees onto a fine l never received or knew l had. The very next morning Fines Vic called me and resolved the situation on the same day thanks to Bens efforts. Before l involved the Ombudsman l had been fighting Vic fines for over 9 months, they are an absolute disgrace, a RORT and totally unjust. But that’s our government under Andrews.
Thanks Ben and the Victorian Ombudsman for your quick actions in resolving my issue it’s great to see we have a voice still in this authority state of Victoria.

2 Months ago the case rep stopped responding to me, I had a genuine complaint about VicRoads - as Admitted by VO, This ombudsman is purely for looks nothing else, do yourself a favor and don't waste you time with these guys. Waste of tax payers money. When my mum filed another legitimate complaint about the local city councils they just closed the complaints and said there's nothing the can do about them despite our points being validated with evidence to prove our case was right. Its a government organisation investigating a government organisation completely pointless

Also I'm expecting a copy paste reply that says if you wish to make a complaint about us etc etc, just for them to cover themselves, This place does not care what so ever.

Complete mis-comprehension of the issue I raised about a council. When I asked for second opinion/review the reply to me was from the same person who got it wrong first time! It feels like a triple injustice - wrong admin at council, wrong understanding and wrong admin at VO.

Complained about the Geelong City Council witholding money paid in rates accidentally. It took almost 40 days to get the rates refunded with a 30$ penalty. Ombudsman was useless. They mislead you into thinking you will be treated with respect. Don't bother with them.

A minister can become corrupted by private interests without their being fully aware of it. Ombudsman Deborah Glass should not be restrained from her swift actions on such ministers.

Waste of time by a group of corrupt inept officials who should be sacked and made to pay back their salaries. Have no empathy and desire to help. Should disband the whole organisation as soon as possible. Would get response if i was talking to the backside of a monkey. At least the monkey would be more intelligent.

Their existence is pretty pointless to be honest. They have no actual power to do anything, their role extends to facilitating discussion and if you are not happy with an outcome, they can't actually do anything about it. I'm really not sure why they exist. My experience with them has been a pointless waste of time.

What is use for this site? Can't even help enocent people from abuser system. I was looking around.all the system here in Melbourne everything have 1star or 0. That's terrible. Ashamed. Y people no power no human rights. Only people have power to have a peace mind in this world. Can't believe this country.

Completely useless fails to accept common law fails proper response time (months) makes excuses and is corrupt by taking sides and doing nothing
makes assumptions that are not true in law
same old from the last complaint
terrible

will update

Dear Victorians,
You have chosen to waste your time and energy to come to this useless service. Even if you prove your report or complaint about public official in writing and in accordance to the legislation, they don't apply the legislation on public officials as they are exempt from the legislation. If you caught public employee breaking code of conduct or the law, there is no action will taken as the law is only there to be written but not to be applied. Dodgy excuses, dishonest manipulation tactics and questioning what is the philosophy behind the complaint are what they were trained for.
Hope you don't get this experience but in most cases (not all) you will have this experience.

Give reasons to NOT help rather than find a way to help. Will not assist if court action is an option (always is)! Not sure what their purpose is and when they are ever able to assist.

I dealt with two people at the Ombudsman's office about my complaint.

The person I initially spoke to about my complaint referred me to another person in the Ombudsman's office.

At first I thought the first person was handling my complaint well until she referred me to another person. Then I felt like I was being fobbed off and I was very disappointed.

Then the second person handled my complaint in an extremely poor and unprofessional manner.

I'm extremely disappointed with my experience of making a complaint to the Ombudsman's office. I think it is an absolutely terrible service.

No integrity, no impartiality, colludes with corrupt local councils to hurt Australians. A waste of taxpayers' money.

After 2 months of going back & forth, it appears that the majority of industry coveted by the Victorian Ombudsman are protected by legislation against almost any or all fault? It was explained that the Ombudsman has to abide by legislation, so it's pointless promotion that they have the powers to overide any errors or injustice, if they are going to abide by the fine print that allows state government services to wrought consumers and only act when there are a sytemic numbers of complaints.
You would get a quicker response from a current affair, so dont waste your time here.

Dear Victorian Citizens. This organisation will waste your time. You will not be heard, your complaint will be quickly scanned NOT read and sensationally, intentionally misunderstood. The staff will know less than you, dear fellow citizen in general matters of Australian regulations and even common knowledge of laws. Staff I interacted with seemed like they had very little life experience. As said in other reviews, and very, very true is that this organisation is skewed towards the favour of Victorian Government Organisations. /public service. They barely tried to hide the fact that they had no interest in you if you were complaining about the Public Service. It was glaringly obvious. There seemed to be no confidence only incompetence. The process was more about closing your case as quickly as possible by not actually examining the detail of your complaint. You will be 'fobbed off'. You will have to keep pushing your point to be heard while trying to investigate legislation yourself.
You will be left feeling completely and utterly unheard. A dehumanising experience. Authoritarian Bureaucracy, and those who maintain it will not be questioned, even by the Ombudsmen. "Toothless Tiger" as said by other reviewers is an apt description.
Zero stars.

Disappointing customer service experience! Government is wasting tax payer's money by having this organization open they helping lawyers to be untouchable and not help the citizens, get government to investigate this organization.this is what they had to say! I understand you may be disappointed with my assessment of your matter, however, unfortunately we are unable to assist you any further and must decline your complaint under section 15 (6) of the Ombudsman Act. (in my opinion all this government body are courted) wake up Australia

Horrendously mismanaged and lead by Ms Glass - there's a reason why ALL the negative reviews are under her tenure. There is a blanket rule for staff to ignore basically all complaints relating to the Victorian Public Service or local councils unless there's a 'human rights element' to it or the member of the public can provide so much evidence to support their complaint that they've basically done the investigation themselves. Majority, if not all, of the investigations that will be looked at will be related to prisoners or social housing tenants as Ms Glass fancies herself a social worker (but has never worked in any frontline roles and gets paid over 500k a year for signing off on reports and giving about 12 speeches a year) and has a general indifference towards the true middle class and working poor who desperately need help when dealing with government agencies.

Also a generally terrible workplace with the highest staff turnover in the VPS due to her management. If you want to work here to try and 'do good' just keep in mind you won't. Your role will consist of closing complaints or being told to close complaints against councils or the VPS (even when they're VERY valid) and acting as an advocate for prisoners (Irrespective of their crimes or how they've behaved) and social housing tenants. A good example is having to advocate against solitary confinement for a prisoner who repeatedly abused guards and got caught smuggling drugs repeatedly into a prison as that's somehow 'unfair'. Avoid working here or contacting them at all costs - you'll get nowhere and it desperately needs to be defunded.