Investigation into allegations of improper conduct by officers of VicRoads

The investigation found that that some VicRoads enforcement officers routinely exceeded the speed limit in VicRoads vehicles without displaying lights or sirens, as required by the road rules. Foreword This report sets out the investigation into a protected disclosure complaint referred by IBAC to the Ombudsman in October 2014. The discloser alleged that it is “normal practice” for VicRoads Transport Safety Services staff caught speeding in VicRoads vehicles to avoid a fine by claiming unjustifiable exemptions. In effect, the allegation was that some VicRoads staff break the road rules with impunity. Victorian road rules are clear: road users may not exceed the speed limit, unless the special exemptions for drivers of police, emergency, enforcement and escort vehicles apply. The rationale for both the road rules and the exemptions is unarguably about public safety. Not only did some staff routinely break the rules, the process for investigating infringements and approving exemptions was seriously deficient. Exemptions were approved on no or minimal evidence, and with no or minimal rationale. Senior staff responsible for approving exemptions were not even aware that lights or sirens were necessary. &nbsp

Investigation into the rehabilitation and reintegration of prisoners in Victoria

A whole-of-government approach focused on reducing offending is a key recommendation of this report tabled today by the Victorian Ombudsman. From the media release Between 2009 and 2012, the Victorian prison population rose by just under 11%. In the subsequent three years, this growth has more than doubled to 25%. Over the past five years the recidivism rate has increased by 10.8% and the Corrections budget has increased by 31%. ‘Prison is a temporary solution – over 99% of prisoners will be released. Victoria needs to ensure their rehabilitation and reintegration to improve public safety and get better value for the $1 billion annual spend, ’ says Ombudsman Deborah Glass. ‘ As prisons have become more crowded, the response has been to build more of them. While conditions inside prisons deteriorate under pressure, the rate of return is increasing. Building more prisons is demonstrably not making us safer as a community. For such enormous public investment we should be seein g much better returns,’ said Ms Glass. ‘Long term solutions do not lie within the walls of our prisons or with a single government department. Victoria needs a whole - of - government approach to focus on the causes of crime rather than its consequences, ’ Ms Glass said. ‘If we continue in this way, current trends in both prisoner numb ers and cost mean it will not be long before we have to make hard decisions between prison beds or hospital beds, better schools or more security,’ Ms Glass said. Key among the report’s findings are that an increase in prisoner numbers sparked by reforms to sentencing, bail and parole arrangements is reducing access to programs aimed at reducing recidivism. ‘ The public expects violent offenders to serve time, but offenders must also be better coming out than when they went in if we’re going to reduce crim e. We also know that prison is the most expensive option and that there are alternative 1 approaches which work well in appropriate cases to change offender behaviour and reduce reoffending,’ Ms Glass said. Women and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pr isoners were a particular focus in the report . While these two groups represent a comparatively small percentage of the prison population, their numbers are growing at a greater rate than the overall average. ‘For women, s pecific services within prisons a re limited, so the solutions must lie in alternatives to incarceration and greater support , including in tr ansition and housing,’ Ms Glass said. Given the level of disadvantage experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their over - rep resentation in custody, the report finds there is a compelling case for more action to reduce both the number of prisoners in the first instance and the re - offending rate. ‘ As Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda has pointed out, it is shameful that we do better at keeping Aboriginal people in prison s than we do schools,’ noted Ms Glass. Re - offending rates are unlikely to improve without urgent action, with the investigation finding that recidivism rates are hi ghe st among people aged 18 to 25 . Over half of young prisoners ret urn to prison within two years, setting up a cycle of offending that can last a lifetime. ‘ Despite a demonstrable effect on recidivism rates, Victoria has only one dedicated youth unit, housin g 35 of the 751 young offenders in adult prisons. Interventions targeted towards young offenders – through diversion or within the prison system – provide a significant opportunity to break the cycle befor e it becomes entrenched,’ Ms Glass sai

A report on misuse of council resources

The purpose of this report is to draw attention to the types of low-level abuses of power that occur from time to time in local government, and are the subject of numerous complaints and protected disclosures investigated by the Victorian Ombudsman\u27s office. The case studies presented here cover outer metropolitan, metropolitan and regional councils, and are intended to illustrate the issues with governance, monitoring and culture that they can face

Investigation of a protected disclosure complaint regarding allegations of improper conduct by councillors associated with political donations

Foreword It is remarkable that, as the Victorian Parliament Electoral Matters Committee said in April 2009, ‘Victoria, along with the Commonwealth, is amongst the least regulated jurisdictions in the western world in terms of political finance law.’ One of the consequences of this is not only the potential for undue influence to compromise the integrity of government decisions, but for allegations to be made, often publicly, that cannot easily be either proven or disproven. The Victorian Ombudsman does not normally deal with election matters. They are usually outside my jurisdiction, which is about the administration of government, not the actions of elected officials. I do, however, investigate complaints about elected officials in two circumstances: a ‘protected disclosure complaint’ referred by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC), or a referral from Parliament itself

Victorian Ombudsman 2015 annual report

The Victorian Ombudsman exists to ensure fairness for all Victorians in their dealings with the public sector and to improve public administration. Ombudsman\u27s foreword The work of the Ombudsman can and does make a difference, and this report sets out some of the many ways we did so in the past year. Our workload continues to increase – 38,980 approaches, six percent more jurisdictional approaches than last year – not, I would suggest, because the public sector has deteriorated, but as awareness of this office grows. Growth inevitably produces challenges and we are working to ensure we are as efficient as possible in our daily work, while remaining professional and responsive. Last year my staff carried out 3,256 formal enquiries and investigations, covering many of the thousand or so entities over which the Ombudsman has jurisdiction

Collaboration by the Public Sector: Findings by Watchdogs in Australia and New Zealand

Drawing on an analysis of 112 watchdog reports that addressed collaboration, this paper concludes that governance issues make up a large proportion of all issues identified. Less commonly found were specific references to capacity and information management as important elements for effective collaboration. The evidence from watchdog reports confirms that collaboration remains very problematic for the public sector. Moreover, it is not evident that the wider public sector is drawing on this evidence extensively to learn and improve

Reasonable adjustment in assessment: The Australian experience

This chapter explains the legislation and associated case law which underpins the right to reasonable adjustment in education for students with disabilities in Australian schools. It focuses, particularly, on obligations which arise under the Disability Standards for Education 2005 (Cth). It gives examples of the kinds of adjustment which may be made to promote equality of opportunity in the area of assessment. It also considers how the law has constructed the border between reasonable adjustment and academic integrity

Australian child protection services: a game without end

This article argues that Australian child protection services are based on an error of logical typing. Across time, this has led to an over-reliance on mandatory reporting legislation, a forensic/investigative/prosecutorial model of practice, a risk-averse organisational culture and zero tolerance of any imperfections in parenting practices which are defined as child abuse and neglect regardless of their severity. All of these positions ignore powerful social stressors that surround complex family situations where abuse and neglect can occur. It is proposed that this error of logical typing is confirmed by the well-documented fact that Australian child protection services have for more than two decades been unable to prevent or reduce the incidence of child abuse and neglect. For this article, New South Wales is used as the exemplar state