The NSW Ombudsman is independent and impartial. We watch over most public sector and some private sector agencies in NSW. Our role is to make sure these agencies and their staff do their jobs properly and meet their responsibilities to the community. The office of NSW Ombudsman was created by legislation in 1974. Loosely translated, the word ‘ombudsman’ means ‘the citizen’s defender’ or ‘representative of the people’. The Ombudsman is independent of the government of the day and accountable to the public through Parliament itself. Like many other Ombudsman offices around the world, our office was modelled on the Swedish Justitie-Ombudsman from 1809, whose main role was to investigate complaints about government administration.