Mr Aird - That's right.

Mr DEAN - and of course this saves a lot of time and expensive inquiry by the Ombudsman.

I take it, Mr Leader - and you will be able to answer this for me, if you do not mind - that in those instances the Ombudsman would take the complaint after that matter has been raised with the public authority if it has not been satisfied.

Mr Aird - That's right.

Mr DEAN - The other comment I wanted to make was in relation to the conciliation of complaints by the Ombudsman, Mr President, and that situation is not dissimilar to the current position that Tasmania Police have where there are categories of complaints, customer service complaints and others which are the more serious category. In relation to customer service complaints, there is the ability there to conciliate those matters without it going to a fully fledged investigation. I think in this instance it is good to see that the Ombudsman has that same right to conciliate those matters.

I guess the concern there is - and police find this, too, with many complainants - that they become fairly pedantic, and the fact is they want their matter to go to a fully fledged investigation. They want heaps of money spent on their investigation, even though at the end of the day, Mr President, it is not worthy of that type of investigation. I notice that where that happens here, the Ombudsman has no choice in that situation. If that complainant has that type of attitude, then the Ombudsman, I think, is forced into a full inquiry. I would have thought that perhaps there would have been some way around that in this bill because the police are able, in those situations where a complainant is pedantic, to conciliate in those circumstances, albeit that is the attitude of the complainant. I would have liked this section to cover that situation.

Mr President, the amendments, in my opinion, are commonsense amendments. They will make the process much easier for the Ombudsman and will allow a lot of investigations to continue quickly and expeditiously rather than the drawn-out processes that are sometimes seen with investigations of complaints. That was the reason Tasmania Police went down this course some time ago now - several years ago - to expedite the investigation of complaints. Simple complaints were coming in, and I guess, as with the Ombudsman, under the current system, those complaints were being dragged out for three, four or six months when in actual fact with a simple conciliation process they could be satisfied within seven days.

In actual fact, with the police system - I think I am right in saying - now with a customer service complaint, a minor complaint, they must be finalised within 14 days. In this instance, the Ombudsman will obviously be able to satisfy a lot of those matters quickly, expeditiously, and I commend the Government, Mr President, for bringing this matter into the House.