Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier has released his final
report to Parliament before he leaves Office tomorrow (28
March).
It is customary for the Chief Ombudsman to
release a final report before they leave
Office.
‘The Way I See It, Report by the Chief
Ombudsman Peter Boshier, December 2015 – March 2025, on
leaving Office’ contains his personal thoughts on the
jurisdiction and constitutional position of the Ombudsman in
New Zealand.
Excerpt from the introduction
It
has become a tradition for an Ombudsman, on leaving office,
to write a report to share some personal thoughts on the
jurisdiction and constitutional position of the Ombudsman in
New Zealand as they’ve seen it.
Society has
undergone such rapid change since the Ombudsman’s Office
was first established in New Zealand 62 years ago, and each
of my predecessors have faced a unique set of
challenges.
This is an opportunity for me, as New
Zealand’s 8th Chief Ombudsman, to outline some of my own
challenges over the past nine years. It is also a chance to
talk about how the role is fundamental to New Zealand’s
constitutional framework, yet it’s constantly evolving –
which it needs to in order to stay relevant for our
country.
This isn’t a personal memoir. Rather, it is
my take on how we’ve been doing—it’s more like a
school report. This is the way I see it.
I came into
this role after a long career in the judiciary, having first
been appointed as a Judge back in 1988. As an Ombudsman,
I’ve been able to focus on fairness and
reasonableness—rather than be tied to pleadings and
evidence—I think this is one of the role’s key
strengths. I felt, as a Judge, that justice didn’t always
deliver fairness and that many went without
redress.
Advertisement – scroll to continue reading
An Ombudsman is much more inquisitorial, and
is able to get to the heart of the matter. The most
important task of any Ombudsman is to find out what has
happened, but also why that has happened. And if any
recommendations need to be made, even if it’s simply to
provide greater clarity and explanation, or a more
prescriptive remedy, people’s mana should always be
recognised and protected. That is why the New Zealand
Ombudsman’s motto, Tuia kia ōrite | Fairness for all,
sums it up for me.
Read the report here:
https://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/sites/default/files/2025-03/Peter%20Boshier%20The%20Way%20I%20See%20It%20-%20Report%202025.pdf
