Good morning Mr Buckley,
I have taken your email below dated 28 October 2022 as a request for us to close our review file and take no further action in your matter. In line with this request, I will now finalise the review (2019-713831-R). We would usually advise both a complainant and an agency of our decision when finalising a complaint and the reasons for the decision under section 12 of the
Ombudsman Act 1976. Please let me know whether you would like me to provide my review findings to you in writing, or not.
By way of update and an indication of next steps, I was intending to request some further
limited information from CASA to be in a position to reach my final conclusions on a couple of issues raised in the course of your original complaint before finalising your matter, hopefully before the end of the year. I may still request the additional information from CASA for the purpose of bringing the final issues to conclusion for our internal records, even though I will finalise your review matter.
I would like to acknowledge the significant length of time I have held this complaint, and I am sorry I have not been able to provide my conclusions to you earlier. In this matter there has been a substantial amount of information received from both yourself and CASA, and it has taken me longer than anticipated to consider the conclusions reached by Mike and then Mark in your complaint against the information you provided to us both during the complaint process itself and during this review. In doing this, I have also considered a lot of information that CASA has given us about its engagement with you. In short, I do not agree with you that CASA has misled the Ombudsman’s Office. I intended to address this issue in more detail in my review decision to demonstrate why I do not think our office has been misled and can provide this information to you, if you’d like me to.
Finally, I would encourage you to reach out for support in relation to your mental health concerns. If you don’t have support in place already, I suggest you contact
Lifeline (13 11 14 or
https://www.lifeline.org.au/),
Beyond Blue (1300 224 636 or
https://www.beyondblue.org.au/) or your GP for assistance and support. You could also contact
Financial Counselling Australia (FCA) if you would like to talk to a phone financial counsellor from anywhere in Australia. You can reach FCA by ringing 1800 007 007 (minimum opening hours are 9.30 am – 4.30 pm Monday to Friday). This number will automatically switch through to the service in the State or Territory closest to you.
While I acknowledge your request not to provide the findings of my review, if you would like them, please let me know.
Yours sincerely,