Deborah Glass

Deborah GlassOBE(born 1959) is an Australian lawyer, who was theVictorian Ombudsmanbetween March 2014 and March 2024.,when she was succeeded byMarlo Baragwanath.

A lawyer by profession,she spent her formative years inMelbourne,Australia,before taking her career overseas toSwitzerland,Hong Kong,and theUnited Kingdom.From 2008 to 2014, Glass was the deputy chair of theIndependent Police Complaints Commission(IPCC) in the United Kingdom.She was also one of the IPCC's ten operational Commissioners, in which capacity she had joint regional responsibility forLondonand theSouth-East.

Early years

Glass was born in 1959 inBega, New South Wales,and raised in Melbourne. She attendedMount Scopus Memorial Collegeand thenMonash University,where she obtained herBAin 1980 andLLBin 1982.

Career

Glass practiced law briefly inMelbourne,before relocating toSwitzerlandin 1985 to work forCiticorp,aUSinvestment bank.In 1989 she was appointed to theHong KongSecurities and Futures Commission,where she became Senior Director and was instrumental in raising standards in the investment management industry. She then moved to London in 1998 where she became Chief Executive of the Investment Management Regulatory Organisation, which under her stewardship was successfully subsumed into the London-basedFinancial Services Authority.She also worked as anIndependent custody visitorbetween 1999 and 2005. In 2001, Glass was appointed to thePolice Complaints Authority,and in 2004 became a Commissioner with theIndependent Police Complaints Commission(IPCC). She was the Commissioner responsible, among other things, for London, and for many high-profile criminal and misconduct investigations and decisions involving the police. These included decisions in relation to the police response to theNews International phone hacking scandalphone-hacking affair, thedeath of Ian Tomlinsonduring the London G20 protests in 2009,the decision to launch an independent investigation into the aftermath of theHillsborough disaster,and thePlebgateaffair. In 2012 Glass was awarded anOrder of the British Empirefor her service. She left the IPCC in March 2014, having completed a 10-year term with the organisation, which then published her personal critique of the police complaints system in England and Wales. Glass returned to Australia in 2014 and was appointed by the state government asOmbudsman Victoriafor a 10-year fixed term. Glass was awarded Monash University Faculty of Law's Distinguished Alumni Award in 2016.

Publications

Some of Glass's key investigations as Victorian Ombudsman have been:

• Investigation into Department of Health oversight of Mentone Gardens, a Supported Residential Service (April 2015)
• Investigation into the rehabilitation and reintegration of prisoners in Victoria (September 2015)
• Investigation into public transport fare evasion enforcement (May 2016)
• Investigation into the management of complex workers compensation claims and WorkSafe oversight (September 2016)
• Investigation into the transparency of local government decision making (December 2016)
• Investigation into the management of maintenance claims against public housing tenants (October 2017)
• Implementing OPCAT in Victoria: report and inspection of theDame Phyllis Frost Centre(November 2017)
• Investigation into the financial support provided to kinship carers (December 2017)
• Investigation of a matter referred from the Legislative Council on 25 November 2015 (March 2018)
• Investigation into child sex offender Robert Whitehead's involvement withPuffing Billyand other railway bodies (June 2018)
• OPCAT in Victoria: A thematic investigation of practices related to solitary confinement of children and young people (September 2019)
• WorkSafe2: Follow-up investigation into the management of complex workers compensation claims (December 2019)
• Investigation into review of parking fines by the City of Melbourne (September 2020)
• Investigation into the detention and treatment of public housing residents arising from a COVID-19 'hard lockdown' in July 2020 (December 2020)
• Investigation into the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions’ administration of the Business Support Fund (April 2021)
• Investigation into how local councils respond to ratepayers in financial hardship (May 2021)
• Investigation into decision-making under the Victorian Border Crossing Permit Directions (December 2021)
• Investigation of a matter referred from the Legislative Council on 9 February 2022  Part 1 (July 2022)
• Operation Watts, a joint investigation into allegations of serious corrupt conduct involving Victorian public officers, including Members of Parliament
• WorkSafe 3: Investigation into Victorian self-insurers’ claims management and WorkSafe oversight
• Investigation into the Department of Transport and Planning’s implementation of the zero and low emission vehicle charge
• Watchdog for the people: 50 years of the Victorian Ombudsman
• Investigation into healthcare provision for Aboriginal people in Victorian prisons
• Reflections on 10 years

External links

• Official Victorian Ombudsman Website
• About the Victorian OmbudsmanArchived18 February 2017 at theWayback Machine
• Power To The People - The Age
• Australian Women Lawyers as Active Citizens - Deborah Glass
• Monash Alumni Stories - Deborah GlassArchived30 October 2018 at theWayback Machine