Veterans Affairs committee  I think the Commonwealth Ombudsman conducts his own stakeholder or client satisfaction surveys. I don't have any feeders on what's come out of that. As the Department of Veterans' Affairs, we conduct client satisfaction or veterans surveys in the same way vets do here, and our figures are similar.

Veterans Affairs committee  Within the Department of Veterans' Affairs, we have a specific policy area that concentrates on that and we use the term “younger veterans”. That group looks at the needs of the younger veteran group, what their requirements are, and how they differ from the older veterans. They provide advice to the minister on what policy directions or settings are needed to address the concerns of the younger veterans.

Veterans Affairs committee  I've actually been here since July, so nearly six months. I have another 12 months to go.

Veterans Affairs committee  It's not for me to advise you how you should proceed.

Veterans Affairs committee  From my point of view, I think the important thing, in terms of an ombudsman, is whether he or she is effective. And normally you gauge effectiveness by the number of recommendations that are accepted and implemented. I think it's less of an issue in terms of how the office is structured, whether it's legislated or not.

Veterans Affairs committee  Not that I'm aware of. I'd say no.

Veterans Affairs committee  The ombudsman wears the hat of Defence Force Ombudsman as well as the Commonwealth Ombudsman. In terms of the way the office is structured, the senior assistant ombudsman who looks after the defence matters also looks after veterans affairs, the Veterans' Review Board, and I think the other agency within the defence portfolio is the defence housing authority.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's correct.

Veterans Affairs committee  Not that I'm aware of. They have similar statutory functions, but one of the things the Auditor General concentrates on is the compliance with the financial management arrangements and making sure that the agencies' financial statements are correct and that sort of thing. So it's sort of a different focus.

Veterans Affairs committee  That may well be your observation.

Veterans Affairs committee  As I said earlier, in terms of veterans affairs, the complaint volume has been bobbing along at the 200 mark over recent years. There was a spike last year because of one particular issue. In terms of the totality of the complaints, from the information I looked at, I think it was running at about 17,000 the year before and a bit below that mark the year before that.

Veterans Affairs committee  All Australian government agencies have a sort of management performance framework that's mandated across the government, so all government agencies usually have a service charter and a performance standard that is normally publicly available to the clients of those agencies.

Veterans Affairs committee  And in their annual report, that's one of the things they have to report against, how they managed their performance.

Veterans Affairs committee  In that scenario, that would be up to the ombudsman to approach the government of the day and make the case. It would be up to the government of the day as to whether they increased the resources.

Veterans Affairs committee  I couldn't comment on that.