A complaint about the Commission is an expression of dissatisfaction with the way in which we have gone about our work. This includes complaints regarding: 

• the way a person or business has been treated by the Commission 

• the process followed when deciding on what actions, if any will be taken on a matter 

• any other matter about the way in which the Commission has carried out its duties, functions or powers (including failure to show due care when dealing with a person, organisation or information, or undue delay in handling a matter). 

Please note this does not include a complaint about a decision we have reached on a current investigation or other matter (unless the complaint is regarding our conduct and/or the process we undertook in reaching the decision). 

Where a complaint concerns the decisions you think we should make on a current investigation or other matter, or the process you think we ought to follow, we may decide to note that as a submission or other comment in the matter rather than treat it as a complaint about the Commission. 

If you make a complaint, it will be read, logged, acknowledged and assigned to a Commission staff member to respond to. 

The staff member will make contact with you, and in some cases may seek further information from you. They may also consult with the staff who are handling or have handled the relevant file or matter. 

We will answer your complaint as promptly as we can. We aim to respond to your complaint within 20 working days of receiving it. In some cases, a full response will not be possible within this timeframe, and in those cases we will indicate our likely timing for a full response. 

Possible decisions on complaints 

Because the nature of complaints can vary greatly, a wide range of possible decisions can be made. The most common possible responses are summarised below: 

Complaint is upheld and corrective action is taken 

We want to resolve any problems that you identify and will consider what changes, if any, we need to make to the way we go about our work. 

If we agree with you that we have not met our standards of performance, we will advise you of that and we will make changes aimed at ensuring that we do not repeat this. 

Complaint is rejected – no further action 

If your complaint is, in our view, unfounded, we will give you brief reasons for why we have formed that view. 

Having done so, we will not normally engage in further correspondence on the same issues. Please see the content below on if you are dissatisfied with the Commission’s response. 

If you are dissatisfied with the response you receive to any complaint, you can ask us to reconsider. Please contact the person who sent you our response. 

You also have the right to raise your concerns with the New Zealand Ombudsman: 

Office of the Ombudsman 
Free phone: 0800 802 602 
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz 
[email protected] 
PO Box 10152 
Wellington 6143 

The Ombudsman can consider complaints about the administrative acts and decisions of state sector agencies. The Ombudsman will ask if you have first tried to resolve the matter with us directly, and will also consider whether you have any other remedy available. The Ombudsman may look into your complaint and make a recommendation to us regarding the concern you have raised.

The Commission is not required to respond to complainants whose conduct is unreasonable. 

We will follow the Ombudsman’s  Managing unreasonable complainant conduct manual when considering whether a complainant’s conduct is unreasonable. 

The Ombudsman’s manual provides the following definition of unreasonable complainant conduct. 

“Unreasonable complainant conduct ('UCC') can be defined as any behaviour by a current or former complainant which, because of its nature or frequency, raises substantial health, safety, resource or equity issues for the parties to a complaint.  

The parties to a complaint that might be detrimentally impacted by UCC include, the organisation responsible for handling a complaint, the staff member(s) tasked with dealing with a complaint, the subject of complaint, a complainant himself or herself (potentially including members of their families and friends) and other complainants and service users.” 

If we take the view that a complainant’s conduct is unreasonable, we will advise the complainant of our view and in some cases that may involve modifying or restricting access to some or all of the services provided by the Commission.