Complaints management policy

1. Purpose

The Department of Customer Services, Open Data and Small and Family Business (CDSB) is committed to managing complaints in a fair, transparent and timely manner. This policy outlines how we handle complaints to ensure they are resolved effectively, respectfully and in line with our legal and ethical obligations.

We aim to foster a culture of customer service excellence by supporting the right to make a complaint and ensuring all matters are managed in a way that is accountable, accessible and compatible with human rights. This policy reflects our proactive, people-focused approach to complaints management and aligns with the Queensland Public Service Customer Complaint Management Framework and Guideline.

2. Scope

This policy applies to:

All employees working for the department including permanent, fixed-term temporary, full-time, part-time and casual employees as well as those on fixed-term contracts, secondments from other departments or participating in mobility arrangements.
Other individuals performing work for the department, including contractors, students gaining work experience and volunteers. For the purpose of this policy, contractors include agency staff hired through temporary labour services.

This policy covers external complaints made to the department by members of the public, stakeholders or staff acting as members of the community. Complaints managed under this policy include dissatisfaction with a service, action or decision made by the department, its employees or anyone providing services on its behalf.

The department’s complaints management system complies with:

Certain types of complaints, such as employee grievances or complaints about other departments, are outside the scope of this policy and are managed under separate frameworks.

3. Policy statement

We are committed to building a culture of customer service excellence and managing complaints in a fair, transparent and timely way. We support the right to make a complaint and ensure all complaints are handled respectfully, efficiently and in line with human rights.

Our complaints management system is guided by 5 principles:

Customer focused: We provide clear and accessible systems for lodging complaints, treat complainants with respect and address all issues raised.
Timely and fair: We handle complaints impartially and confidentially, with prompt acknowledgements and responses.
Clear communication: We set clear expectations and standards for everyone involved in the complaints process.
Accountable: We make roles and responsibilities for complaint management clear and publicly available.
Improving services: We use complaints to improve existing services and develop new ones, helping to prevent ongoing disputes.

For more information on our guiding principles, see:

4. Complaint management processes

The department is committed to managing complaints in a clear, fair and timely manner. Our complaints management process ensures compliance with all relevant legislation, policies and standards, as outlined in the Scope section.

4.1 Types of complaints we manage

Customer complaints

The department manages customer complaints through a system that ensures:

complaints are received, processed and resolved effectively
complainants are informed of the outcome (unless the complaint is anonymous or lacks contact details)
annual de-identified customer complaints data is published on the department’s website.

Procurement complaints

Suppliers, the public and other agencies can raise concerns about Queensland Government procurement process. These complaints are managed under the Queensland Procurement Policy and Queensland Government Procurement Complaints management guide.

Human rights complaints

All complaints are assessed to determine if they involve human rights, even if the complainant does not explicitly identify them as such.

Complainants who believe their human rights have been breached can lodge a complaint directly to the department.
This includes if the complainant believes they have been defamed on the department’s social media platforms.
The department includes details of human rights complaints and their outcomes in its annual report.

Victims’ rights complaints

Victims of violent crime can lodge complaints with the department or the Office of the Victims’ Commissioner. The department ensures investigations do not re-traumatise victims or breach of their rights under the Queensland Charter of Victims’ Rights.

4.2 How we handle complaints

The department aims to resolve complaints quickly and fairly, ideally at the first point of contact. Our approach ensures:

complaints are handled through a clear and accessible process
human rights are considered in all decisions and actions
issues and trends are identified to reduce risk and improve services
staff are empowered to resolve complaints promptly and effectively.

We use a 3-tiered model for handling complaints:

Level 1: Initial complaint handling
Level 2: Internal review
Level 3: External review

4.3 How to lodge a complaint

Visit the compliments and complaints page to lodge a complaint online, in writing, by telephone, in person or on social media.

If you need assistance, such as an interpreter or support for hearing or speech difficulties, help is available through the Queensland Government website.

4.4 Timeframes for complaints

We aim to respond to complaints as quickly as possible. Our timeframes are:

Action	Timeframe
Acknowledge complaints¹	Within 3 business days
Respond to customer, procurement and victims’ rights complaints	Within 30 business days²
Respond to human rights complaints	Within 45 business days²
Complainant request for an internal review	Within 20 business days of receiving response to initial complaint³
Acknowledge internal review request	Within 3 business days
Respond to internal review request	Within 20 business days²

¹ This is either a formal acknowledgement letter from the department or an automated lodgement message which the complainant receives if using the Department of Transport and Main Roads complaints form.

² If timeframe is unlikely to be met, we will proactively communicate this to the complainant.

³ Requests received outside this timeframe may still be considered on reasonable grounds.

4.5 Complainant rights and responsibilities

Complainants have the right to:

lodge complaints about the department’s services, actions or decisions
request a review if they are dissatisfied with the outcome of their complaint.

Complainants also have responsibilities, including:

providing all relevant information about their complaint clearly stating the outcome they want
treating staff with respect and cooperating during the process

If a complainant’s behaviour is unreasonable, the department will take appropriate steps to manage and limit its impact.

4.6 Monitoring and review

The department regularly reviews its complaints management system to ensure it meets the department’s needs and complies with legislation. Reviews are informed by:

feedback from customers and staff
results of internal or external audits or evaluations
changes in policy, legislation or organisational structure.

5. Responsibilities

Complainants

Complainants must provide all relevant information about their complaint, clearly state the outcome they want and cooperate respectfully with staff during the process.

Director-General

The Director-General ensures the department’s complaints management system meets legislative requirements and aligns with the Queensland Public Service Customer Complaint Management Framework and Guideline.

Divisional heads and managers

Divisional heads and managers are responsible for resolving complaints in a fair and timely manner within their areas. They must ensure all complaints are handled respectfully, objectively, and in line with relevant policies and procedures.

Policy owner

The Director of Strategy, Planning and Performance, Corporate Services, is responsible for regularly reviewing the department’s complaints management system, including its policies and procedures.

6. Reporting requirements

We are required to report on complaints both internally and externally. This reporting is conducted in line with:

7. Approval

Approved by: Deputy Director-General, Corporate Services
Date: 21 January 2026

Contacts and references

Contacts and enquiries

Contact the Manager Strategy, Planning and Performance:

By email: SPP@cdsb.qld.gov.au

By post:

Strategy, Planning and Performance, Corporate Services
Department of Customer Services, Open Data and Small and Family Business
PO BOX 15086
CITY EAST QLD 4002

References

The requirements set out in this policy are based on, and are consistent with, relevant government legislation, regulations, directives, information standards and/or policies at the time of publication.

Legislation and regulations

Queensland Government documents

Department of Customer Services, Open Data and Small and Family Business documents

Complaints management procedure
Privacy policy

Other resources

Definitions

Term	Description
Agency	A public service entity as defined in section 9 of the Public Sector Act 2022.
Complainant	A person or their authorised representative who makes a complaint to the department. Representatives can include a parent, relative, someone with power of attorney, or an officer of an organisation.
Complaint	A complaint is when someone tells us they are unhappy with department’s services, actions, or staff. This includes customer complaints, human rights complaints and victims’ rights complaints.
Complaints management system	The policies, procedures, practices, systems, staff and resources used to handle complaints.
Customer	A person or organisation directly affected by the department’s services or actions.
Customer complaint	Under section 264(4) of the Public Sector Act 2022, a customer complaint refers to a complaint about the service or actions of a public sector entity, or its employees, made by someone who is directly affected by the service or action. This includes complaints about: a decision made by a public sector employee or a failure to make a decision an action taken, or not taken by the public sector entity a proposal or intention developed by the public sector entity a recommendation made by the public sector entity the customer service provided by a public sector employee.
Decision-maker	An employee with the authority and expertise to review, respond to and resolve complaints. Decision-makers are usually managers level and are independent of the service or action being reviewed, unless this is not practical. They can: review all evidence, including new information make findings and decide how to respond to the complaint based on the evidence change previous decisions if needed use their own judgement to make fair and reasonable decisions.
Divisional head	The senior manager responsible for a division of the department , such as the Deputy Director-General, Corporate Services.
Employee	Anyone employed by the department under the Public Sector Act 2022. This includes public service officers, general employees, temporary or casual employee and/or those on secondment from another department or agency.
External review	A process where an independent organisation, such as the Queensland Ombudsman, reviews how the department handled a complaint. This happens only after the department’s internal complaint process has been completed.
Human rights	The 23 rights protected under Part 2 of the Human Rights Act 2019.
Human rights complaint	A complaint about a public entity acting in a way that breaches section 58(1) of the Human Rights Act 2019 This includes: acting or making decisions that are not compatible with human rights or failing to properly consider relevant human rights when making a decision.
Internal review	A review of a decision about a complaint to check it was correct, fair, lawful and reasonable based on the information available at the time. This is not a re-investigation but an impartial review by someone who was not involved in the original decision.
Personal information	Information or an opinion about a person that identifies them or could identify them. This applies whether the information is: true or not and written down or not. (Defined in Section 12 of the Information Privacy Act 2009)
Staff	Anyone who works for the department, including contractors, students gaining work experience and volunteers. Contractors include agency staff hired through temporary labour services.
Unreasonable complainant conduct	Behaviour that is unreasonable because of it causes significant issues with health, safety, resource or fairness. Examples include: persisting with a complaint unreasonably making excessive or unrealistic demands refusing to cooperate making unreasonable arguments behaving aggressively or inappropriately.
Victims’ rights	The rights of victims of violent crime under the Charter of Victims’ Rights. These include: being treated fairly by government and non-government agencies having rights in the criminal justice system being informed of their rights when an offender is imprisoned the right to make a complaint.

Human Rights

Decision makers must act and make decisions in a way that is compatible with human rights. They must consider human rights in any decision, as required by section 58 of the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld). Refer to the Human rights section on the For government employees website.

Version control

Version 1.0: 21 January 2026

Next review: January 2028

Last updated:: 22 January 2026