Time for an independent ombudsman

  • John Wood

20 October 2011Allan Asher's resignation highlights the need for the ombudsman to be free of government control, argues John Wood in Inside Story

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It’s a dark day for the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman, and not for the reasons parroted in the media about Allan Asher’s faux pas in collaborating with a Greens senator to raise questions about his resources. Rather it is the way in which the ombudsman has been harassed, even after apologising for his self-styled “unwise” conduct. That an ombudsman can be dressed down by the head of the prime minister’s department – an agency subject to his jurisdiction – and by Minister Gary Gray, demonstrates his office’s lack of independence from government…

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