Guidelines on banning customers from entering Centrelink offices because of inappropriate behaviour are the subject of this report. The Ombudsman has received complaints over a number of years from customers whose face-to-face contact with Centrelink staff has been withdrawn because of their behaviour. The report concludes that in most instances Centrelink’s decisions to ban customers...

This investigation was prompted by 124 complaints received by the Ombudsman’s office about Centrelink’s administration of the activity test requirements following the implementation of Welfare to Work reforms on 1 July 2006. The report was critical of the practice of stopping a person’s welfare payment before a decision was made about whether or not a...

This report deals with the Department of Immigration’s (DIAC) obligation to provide an unsuccessful visa applicant with a letter that clearly explains the decision and information about DIAC’s notification of adverse decisions was not well coordinated or consistent. There was variation in the quality of notification letters, many of which fell short of best practice...

In 2005 and 2006, the Australian Government referred to the Commonwealth Ombudsman the cases of 247 people who had been detained by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) and later released on the basis that they could not be detained any longer as an unlawful non-citizen. The Ombudsman’s office agreed to investigate and report...

The Ombudsman has provided a further seven assessments of the circumstances of people who have remained in immigration detention for two years or more to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, and these were tabled in parliament on 10 May. The reports and the minister’s tabling statement are available online.