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Level 2, 570 Bourke Street Melbourne VIC 3000
Tel 03 9613 6222 Fax 03 9602 4761
Toll free 1800 806 314
6 August 2025
Our ref: FOI/25/5
Douglas Steley
Email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Douglas Steley
Notice of decision – Request for documents under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982
We refer to your request for information under the
Freedom of Information Act
1982 (
FOI Act) lodged with the Victorian Ombudsman (
VO) on 7 July 2025.
You have requested access to the following:
I would like to request under Victorian Freedom of Information Law how
many complaints were lodged with the Office of the Victorian Ombudsman
between 1st January 2010 and and the January 1st 2025.
I would also like the number of these complaints that were found to be
valid and what action the office of the Victorian Ombudsman took to
rectify the issues raised by the complainant.
Valid decision
Your request, as outlined above, is considered a valid request for documents
under the FOI Act. We have decided to waive the application fee for your
request.
Notice of decision
We have broken your request down into three (3) parts:
1. [H]ow many complaints were lodged with the Office of the Victorian
Ombudsman between 1st January 2010 and and the January 1st
2025
The information you have requested does not exist in a discrete form. However,
pursuant to section 19 of the FOI Act the VO has prepared a table which
contains the number of complaints received by VO between 1 January 2010 to 1
Email xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx.xxx.xx
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Website ombudsman.vic.gov.au
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January 2025. Please see table below.
Please note that complaints about a Victorian public organisation which falls
within VO’s legislative jurisdiction are described as ‘Jurisdictional Complaints’
and those that are about other bodies which are not within VO’s legislative
jurisdiction are described as ‘Non-jurisdictional Complaints’.
Calendar Jurisdictional
Non-Jurisdictional
Total
Year
Complaint
Complaint
Complaints
2010
6370
5342
11712
2011
14739
13390
28129
2012
15187
14083
29270
2013
12809
16451
29260
2014
12231
7547
19778
2015
13036
7464
20500
2016
13372
7514
20886
2017
15184
7983
23167
2018
15834
6261
22095
2019
17057
6511
23568
2020
15373
6897
22270
2021
19097
7095
26192
2022
17234
7785
25019
2023
17930
7265
25195
2024
17124
7427
24551
Grand
Total
222577
129015
351592
2. [T]he number of these complaints that were found to be valid
We have interpreted ‘valid complaints’ to mean ‘Jurisdictional Complaints’.
Please see the above table for a breakdown of the number of Jurisdictional
Complaints.
3. [W]hat action the office of the Victorian Ombudsman took to rectify
the issues raised by the complainant.
We have decided to refuse access to the documents you have requested.
Section 29A of the
Ombudsman Act 1973 (
Ombudsman Act) provides that the
FOI Act does not apply to documents, whether in the possession of VO or
another body, to the extent the documents disclose information that relates to:
a) a complaint, a referred complaint, a referred matter or a matter referred
to the Ombudsman under section 16 of the Ombudsman Act; or
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b) an enquiry or investigation conducted under the Ombudsman Act; or
c) a recommendation made by the Ombudsman under the Ombudsman Act;
or
d) a report made under the Ombudsman Act or a draft of a report.
The documents you have requested would, if disclosed, provide information
which relates to complaints and enquiries conducted under the Ombudsman Act.
On that basis, your request has been refused.
In making our decision, we have considered the object of the FOI Act, which is
to create a general right of access to information, limited only by exceptions and
exemptions necessary to protect essential public interests, privacy, and business
affairs.
Other information
Please be aware VO publishes information about how it handles complaints in its
Annual Reports. You can access these via the following link -
Annual reports |
Victorian Ombudsman.
Your review rights
If you are not satisfied with our decision, you have the right to apply for a review
of it by the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner (
OVIC) under
section 49A(1)(a) of the FOI Act.
A review application must be in writing, identify the decision to be reviewed and
the agency who made it. It must be made to OVIC within 28 days from the day
you receive this letter.
More information about review by OVIC, including a review application form to
assist you in making your application, is available at
https://ovic.vic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/apply-for-a-review/.
You may also lodge your application by:
email: xxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xxx.xx
post: Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner PO Box 24274
MELBOURNE VIC 3001
Questions about this decision
If you have any questions or would like to discuss this request further, please do
not hesitate to email us
at xxxxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx.xxx.xx.
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Yours sincerely
Kate
Solicitor
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