What happened that day?

Search event by date

See historic events for any day of the year by entering the date below. Why not try your birthday?

Visit the full Calendar

Kiwi of the Week

Rene Shadbolt

René Shadbolt led the only New Zealand contingent to the Spanish Civil War. She and fellow nurse, Isobel Dodds, cared for wounded soldiers, particularly those from the International Brigades, from July 1937 to November 1938.

more

Get KotW as RSS

Today in History

30 September

1962 Government watchdog appointed

Sir Guy Powles became New Zealand's first Ombudsman. Loosely translated from Swedish, the term Ombudsman means ‘grievance person’. The office was created to investigate complaints about central government departments and organisations.

In what was up until then a Scandinavian tradition, New Zealand followed Sweden, Finland and Denmark in establishing the office of Ombudsman. New Zealand currently has two Ombudsmen who are appointed as independent Officers of Parliament.

Over time the Ombudsman's jurisdiction has been extended to include education and hospital boards and local government agencies. The Ombudsmen can also investigate complaints from people who have had requests for official information from a government organisation denied. Under the terms of the Protected Disclosures Act 2000, or ‘whistle-blower’ legislation, the Ombudsmen became responsible for providing advice and guidance to any employee who has made, or is considering making, a disclosure about serious wrongdoing in their workplace.

The Ombudsman function has also been extended to the banking and insurance industries. While they perform similar roles in their respective industries, the Banking Ombudsman and the Insurance and Savings Ombudsman have no formal connection with the parliamentary Ombudsman.

Image: Guy Powles (DNZB)