Dealing with government agencies

Challenging decisions and conduct of government agencies

This section is intended to help you understand your rights when dealing with government departments and other public bodies, like Work and Income, Inland Revenue, Housing New Zealand and the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC).

If a government agency has made a decision about you that you’re unhappy with, you’ll usually have a number of options for challenging the decision:

• Internal reviews – Most agencies will provide you with an opportunity to ask them to reconsider their decision, by getting a supervisor or a different staff member to look at it before you need to appeal to an independent reviewer outside their organisation.

For example, when Work and Income reviews a decision, they will do an internal review first, and then a second review by a Benefit Review Committee, which consists of two Work and Income staff and one independent community representative (see: “Challenging Work and Income decisions: Reviews and appeals”), before your challenge goes to an external body. ACC also completes an “administrative review” process before your challenge goes to an external review (see: “Challenging an ACC decision”).

• Specialist appeal bodies and commissioners – There will often be a specific appeal or review body for the type of decision you’re unhappy about – one that’s outside and independent of the agency that made it.

For example, if a Work and Income decision hasn’t changed after going through an internal review and a Benefit Review Committee (see above), you can appeal to the Social Security Appeal Authority, which is an independent tribunal. Similarly, if an ACC administrative review doesn’t change the decision that you’re unhappy with, you can (after trying mediation) ask for an independent review by FairWay Resolution.

There are also specialist commissioners and authorities for particular issues – for example, the Privacy Commissioner and the Human Rights Commission can receive complaints about a wide range of government departments and other public bodies and officials, as well as private businesses and individuals (see: “Help from officials overseeing specific areas”).

• The Ombudsman – The Ombudsman play a general watchdog role over government decisions and behaviour. They answer to parliament, not the government.

Complaining to the Ombudsman may be an effective option if there is not a specialist appeal or review body you can go to, or if it’s not the content of a decision you’re unhappy with but instead the process that was followed or the way you were dealt with – for example, if an agency ignored your emails or phone calls about a problem. Although usually the Ombudsman can only make recommendations rather than binding orders, their recommendations are taken very seriously and are usually followed by government officials (see: “The Ombudsman: Watchdogs over government”).

• Going to the courts (“Judicial review”) – If you think a government agency or individual official has gone outside their legal powers in making a decision, you can challenge this in the courts. This is called “judicial review”. To do this, you’ll have to go to the High Court. Usually, the judge will focus on whether the decision-maker followed the process the law sets down for making the decision (see: “Going to the courts: ‘Judicial review’”).