An administrative action complaint is a complaint about an administrative action by us, such as:
- a decision, or a failure to make a decision
- an act, or failure to do an act
- the formulation of a proposal or intention
- the making of a recommendation.
An administrative action complaint must be made by someone directly affected by the decision or action, or acting on behalf of a directly affected person.
Examples of administrative action complaints include:
- a decision not to remove a tree from Council land
- a repeated complaint about a failure to fix a pothole
- a proposal to close a Council facility
- inadequate or wrong information contained in a report to Council.
Process
Our administrative action complaints process has 3 stages of review.
Our process is detailed in our Administrative Action Complaints Procedure.
1. Informal resolution (optional)
If you are unhappy with the original decision or action, you may raise the concern with the team responsible. The team will endeavour to address your concerns at the point of contact, or soon after.
2. Preliminary review
If you are unhappy with the original decision or action, or the informal resolution response, you may request a preliminary review.
A more senior officer in the same team as the original decision maker conducts the preliminary review.
When requesting a preliminary review, you will need to provide as much information as possible, including:
- the decision or action that has occurred (where possible, note who you have spoken to about the matter)
- why you are dissatisfied with the decision or action
- any information you have in support of that position
- what you would like to happen as a result of your request.
We anticipate preliminary reviews will be completed within 40 business days of receiving the request.
Customer seeking a preliminary review response should lodge their complaint within 12 months of the original decision or action, or within 12 months of the informal resolution response.
Lodge a preliminary review
3. Final review
If you are unhappy with the preliminary review response, you can request a final review from our Complaints Team.
The Complaints Team is an independent team, responsible for reviewing the evidence and information available and determining whether the decision in the preliminary review was the correct decision.
When requesting a final review, you will need to provide as much information as possible, including:
- why the preliminary review response was wrong or unreasonable (where possible, note who you have spoken to about the matter)
- any information you have in support of that position
- what you would like to happen as a result of your request.
In lodging a final review request, please note that a mere disagreement of opinion is not considered to be a sufficient ground for review.
We anticipate final reviews will be completed within 40 business days of receiving the request.
Customers seeking a final review should lodge their complaint within 3 months of the preliminary review decision.
Lodge a final review
4. External review
If you are unhappy with our final review response, you may contact an appropriate agency for external review.
Please note that any action we propose to take will not be automatically put on hold while the complaint is investigated.
For details, refer to our Administrative action complaints procedure(PDF, 335KB)