A new report from the NSW Ombudsman has highlighted the impacts on individuals of measures taken by the Government to combat COVID-19.
Acting NSW Ombudsman, Paul Miller said his report, 2020 hindsight: the first 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, also highlights the need for effective complaint handling and oversight to be designed and included in Government crisis responses.
Mr Miller said that in the 12 months from the first Australian COVID-19 case on 25 January 2020, his Office had received over 900 complaints or concerns from individuals about their treatment or experience of the Government’s pandemic measures.
“Everyone has been impacted in some way, but not everyone has been impacted in the same way or to the same extent,” Mr Miller said.
“Some groups have been more vulnerable both to the disease itself and to Government actions taken to contain it,” he said.
“The different and particular experiences of groups and individuals are at the heart of this report.”
Mr Miller said most of the complaints related to the conditions of mandatory hotel quarantine, including hotel facilities, food options and quarantine exemption requests.
He said many of the people who raised concerns were at pains to point out that they did not object generally to the measures imposed by the Government.
“It is widely recognised that, certainly by international standards, the public health response to the pandemic has been highly effective,” he said. “We acknowledge and thank the good work of those responsible for crisis planning and implementation.”
“However, the crisis response also involved new and extraordinary measures that involved significant incursions on individual rights, were taken with limited Parliamentary scrutiny, and were implemented with rapid speed and little or no prior community consultation.”
The Ombudsman said the current oversight and complaint handling system was not ideally suited to crises of the current nature and magnitude because the system was highly fragmented which made it extremely difficult for the public to find the right body to resolve their complaint.
Mr Miller said the recommendations he made were to improve the response, both to current and future crises, including designating a single oversight Agency as a ‘front door’ for external complaints.
He also recommended that relevant oversight bodies be pro-actively briefed by Government so they can respond rapidly and accurately to queries and complaints from the public.
The Ombudsman’s 81-page Report can be accessed at this PS News link.
