October 18, 2019
Low Māori awareness of government watchdog
The Chief Ombudsman says Māori awareness of his office is unacceptably low.
In his annual report, Peter Boshier says he will make increasing engagement with Māori a key focus for the year ahead.
While the Ombudsman was best known for helping the community in its dealings with government agencies, he is increasingly getting requests from those agencies about how they can lift their performance and deal with Official Information Act requests better.
His mandate has also been broadened to include monitoring the treatment of patients detained in privately-run aged care facilities and detainees in court cells, and overseeing complaints and investigations relating to Oranga Tamariki and children and young people in care.
Mr Boshier also wants to improve awareness of the protections available to whistle-blowers, with a survey done this year showing just 9 percent of respondents are aware of the Protected Disclosures Act.
He says that’s an alarmingly low figure given 21 percent of all respondents said they have witnessed serious wrongdoing at their workplace or previous workplaces.
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