Ombudsmans response - Our ref: 2014-103947 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED] Our reference: 2014-103947 Dear Mr McLachlan I refer to our telephone conversation on 9 October 2014 regarding the complaint that you lodged with this office about the handling of your complaint by Chantelle from our Public Contact Team. As the supervisor of the Public Contact Team, it is my role to respond to your complaint. As you have requested, I have provided my response to your complaint below in writing. Your complaint Our records indicate that you contacted the Commonwealth Ombudsman on 2 October 2014 via email. You advised the following at this time: · In 2001 your wife took your sons William and Mikael to Finland and they never returned. · You believe that William is currently living in a children’s home in the Finnish Countryside and has been tortured and drugged by Psychologists and Psychiatrists for years without reason. · You have recently received a letter from the Department of Human Services – Child Support (Child Support) advising you that your assets will be seized in early October 2014 unless you provided money to the Finnish Government. · You do not wish to pay money to the Finnish Government as you consider that they are facilitating the torture and abuse of children. A member of our Public Contact Team (Chantelle) called you to discuss your complaint on 2 October 2014. Our records indicate that Chantelle informed you that if you had a complaint about a letter that you had received from Child Support, that you would be best placed to raise your concerns with the Department of Human Services Feedback and Complaints area in the first instance. She subsequently closed the complaint file. You have since contacted our office and advised another Public Contact Officer that Chantelle had incorrectly informed you that an investigation would be undertaken by the Commonwealth Ombudsman into the matters that you raised. You consider that Chantelle has lied to you. My assessment of your complaint As I informed you over the telephone on 9 October 2014, the actions of the Finnish Government and health care professionals in Finland are not within the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth Ombudsman. This office investigates the administrative actions of Australian Commonwealth Government Agencies. As such, we are unable to assist you with these matters. We will not be responding to any further correspondence about these specific matters. I also informed you that we have no record of Chantelle having provided you with an expectation that an investigation into your complaint would be undertaken by this office. I apologise if you had an expectation that this office would be investigating your matter when we had made a decision to close your file. Having since discussed your situation over the phone and clarifying your complaint, I agree with the decision to close your complaint at this point in time and refer you to contact the Department of Human Services Feedback and Complaints area to seek a better explanation of your situation. For your information, I have provided the contact details below: Postal: DHS Feedback and Complaints GPO Box 9815 Melbourne, VIC 3001 Phone: 1800 132 468 Internet: humanservices.gov.au/customer/information/feedback-complaints If you have contacted the Department of Human Services via the contact details above and you remain unhappy with the response, you are welcome to contact our office again with a detailed summary of your complaint (specifically about the actions of the Australian Department of Human Services), the actions you have taken to resolve your complaint with the agency and the specific response that you have received. Decision Having considered all of the above information, I have been unable to identify any misleading information that has been provided to you by members of our Public Contact Team. I also agree with the decision that Chantelle had made to close your complaint file and refer you to contact the Department of Human Services Feedback and Complaints area in the first instance. I have therefore closed your file and will be taking no further action. I understand that you also have an appointment with Legal Aid in the near future to discuss your Child Support matters. I suggest that you attend this meeting and continue to seek legal assistance. If you disagree with my decision to keep your complaint closed, it is open to you to request a review of my decision. You can request a review of the decision in writing by completing the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s ‘Request for review of our decision’ form and sending this to our office. A copy of the form and more detail about this process can be found at the following link: ombudsman.gov.au/docs/review_info_form.pdf. If you would like to discuss this email, please contact me on 1300 362 072. More information about the role of the Commonwealth and Postal Industry Ombudsman can be found on our websites, pio.gov.au and ombudsman.gov.au. Yours sincerely Thomas Newton A/g Public Contact Team Supervisor | Operations South POSTAL INDUSTRY OMBUDSMAN phone 1300 362 072 | fax 02 6276 0123 email [email protected] website pio.gov.au Influencing agencies to treat people fairly through our investigations of their administration --------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMONWEALTH OMBUDSMAN - IMPORTANT CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE This e-mail message or an attachment to it is confidential, and it is intended to be accessed only by the person or entity to which it is addressed. No use, copying or disclosure (including by further transmission) of this message, an attachment or the content of either is permitted and any use, copying or disclosure may be subject to legal sanctions. This message may contain information which is: * about an identifiable individual; * subject to client legal privilege or other privilege; or * subject to a statutory or other requirement of confidentiality. If you have received this message in error, please call 1300 362 072 to inform the sender so that future errors can be avoided. ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 10:28:51 +0000
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