Meet Deborah Glass, Victoria’s first female Ombudsman.
She made the pilgrimage to East Gippsland last week as part of her regional roadshow
journey through the region as she wraps up her 10-year tenure in the role.
During her visit to East Gippsland, Ms Glass caught up with the Bairnsdale Advertiser, East Gippsland Shire Council, and the Gippsland and East Gippsland Aboriginal Co-operative.
Ms Glass’s term started in March 2014, and before becoming Ombudsman she led criminal and misconduct investigations into police for the Independent Police Complaints Commission of England and Wales.
Looking back on her decade as Ombudsman, Ms Glass said she wished she could have visited regional Victoria more, however the COVID-19 pandemic derailed these plans.
“Regional Victoria is just full of nice people,” Ms Glass said.
“East Gippsland is a beautiful part of Victoria.”
Throughout her term, Ms Glass received a raft of complaints, mostly about a lack of communication from a council or agency.
However, Ms Glass sees the role as a means of educating local councils and agencies, as well as bringing groups together to solve issues.
The Victorian Ombudsman (VO) acts as an independent officer of Victorian Parliament, and the central role of the VO is to handle complaints and hold the Victorian public sector accountable to the people of Victoria.
The VO marked its 50th anniversary of operation in October last year, with the campaign to establish an Ombudsman beginning in the 1960s.
It wouldn’t be until 1973 that an Ombudsman was established.
