Feedback and complaints

What if I am not satisfied with how my application was handled?

If you have received a review or other outcome from us and you are dissatisfied with that outcome, we ask in the first instance that you make contact with the case officer who handled the matter. The case officer will discuss your case with you, with a view to resolving your concerns. While we cannot change the outcome or provide further or additional reasons for the decision, we can provide further information about how the outcome was reached. If your concerns have not been sufficiently addressed by the case officer, you may wish to provide written feedback or a complaint to the Merit Protection Commissioner, by email to feedback@mpc.gov.au.

How we will handle your feedback or complaint

After every review outcome, we will invite you to complete an anonymous survey about your experience with our review process. The feedback from this survey assists us to continuously improve how we work.

If you would like to provide direct feedback to the Merit Protection Commissioner, you can email us at feedback@mpc.gov.au. We appreciate both positive and constructive feedback, and consider it essential to the ongoing efficiency and best practice of our office. If you send us feedback, we will usually acknowledge receipt of your feedback within two business days. We  will consider how we can constructively apply that feedback to our work, however we will not usually respond to you further.

If you are dissatisfied with how we handled your case, or how we interacted with you, you can make a complaint via email to feedback@mpc.gov.au. The Merit Protection Commissioner is informed of all complaints made about her office. We aim to acknowledge your complaint within two business days. 

When we receive a complaint, we will assess it to determine how we can best address your concerns. We consider:

• the seriousness of the allegation or concern
• how long it has been since the issue occurred
• whether there have been attempts to resolve the issue previously
• if you have any vulnerabilities
• if the matter may be a systemic or administrative issue.

So we can respond effectively, we ask you to:

• clearly explain and identify the issues of concern to you
• explain what outcome you are seeking to resolve your concerns, if relevant
• provide all the relevant information you have 
• cooperate with requests for information or evidence and assist with our enquiries
• lodge your concerns in a timely manner, noting that it may be more difficult for us to respond or provide a useful response if your concerns are quite dated
• engage and communicate with us in a respectful manner
• make only reasonable and proportionate follow-up contact and requests after providing the initial complaint.

Once we have considered all of the information, the Merit Protection Commissioner will decide on an appropriate and proportionate response, consistent with the best practice advice provided by the Commonwealth Ombudsman. The Merit Protection Commissioner considers it is often best to resolve complaints at the lowest level and in a timely fashion, as such our initial response may be for the relevant staff member to make contact with you to provide additional information or to discuss and seek to resolve your concerns.

Outcomes to a complaint may include us:

• acknowledging the issue you have raised
• referring the matter to a specific legislative or other process, such as to the Privacy Commissioner if you have a concern about how we handled your personal information
• providing additional information or assistance to you
• apologising to you
• reconsidering a decision where we have made a jurisdictional error.

We will keep you informed about the progress of your complaint and we will provide you with an outcome, unless you do not want us to respond or we decide that a response is not necessary.

Any personal information you provide will be handled in accordance with our privacy policy.