Use our online forms to ask for the Ombudsman’s help
We are making it quicker and easier for you to get in touch, if you need our help.
We have updated our online forms, which you can use to complain to the Ombudsman directly through this website.
You can:
- make a complaint about unfair treatment from a government agency
- make an official information act request complaint
- talk to us about serious wrongdoing at work
- ask us a question
To find out about making a complaint to the Ombudsman about Oranga Tamariki or a contracted care or custody provider see nau-mai.nz opens page in this tab – our website for tamariki/children and rangatahi/young people in care.
What’s new – and why
Complaints can be complex but telling us about them shouldn’t be.
We’ve made our questions and guidance clearer. The form gives you easy-to-follow steps, to help you give us the information we need to look into your complaint.
This helps us gain a better understanding of the issue you’re raising, so we can investigate more effectively.
The form will ask you to provide information on:
- Who the complaint is about
- What happened
- Your contact details
- You can also choose to share information with us about your age, gender and ethnicity. The optional information helps us to improve our services for everyone.
We’ll tell you if another agency can help you, sooner
Sometimes people come to us to ask us for help with complaints that other agencies are set up to deal with.
When you want help, you want to know who can help you, and fast. The new forms will tell you the correct pathway for your complaint, based on the nature of your concern. For example, if you want to complain about the Police, we’ll tell you how to contact the Independent Police Conduct Authority.
Your information is safe
The information you share with us is confidential, as the Ombudsman by law must conduct his inquiries in secret.
A member of our team reads your complaint
When you send the form to us, the information you provide is read by a member of our team. The information you provide helps them understand what happened, so they can tell you what steps the Ombudsman may be able to take.
Don’t want to fill in a form? You can still talk to a person
You can contact our team on freephone: 0800 802 602
We are available 8:30am to 5:00pm Monday to Friday.
We are here for everyone
We can provide support to make our services more accessible for you.
This includes New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) interpretation, the NZ Relay Service, and providing documents in alternate formats.
We can also consider other access or communication needs you may have. Contact us if you would like to find out more.
The Ombudsman provides these accessible communication channels completely free of charge to ensure everyone can access our services.