WA Ombudsman Bevan Warner is seeking to restore confidence in the office after the controversy that led to his predecessor’s resignation, while refocusing the organisation on investigating failures in Western Australian government services.
Warner took over in May 2025, after former Ombudsman Chris Field resigned following a scathing Corruption and Crime Commission report into his international travel during the final two years of his 17-year tenure.
The commission found that Field had committed serious misconduct by failing to obtain ministerial approval for overseas travel undertaken between 2022 and 2023 in his role as head of the International Ombudsman Institute.
The episode brought an office that had largely operated away from public attention into the spotlight. Warner acknowledged that morale was “very low” when he arrived, but said the travel issue had since been resolved.
He is required to obtain the Premier’s approval before travelling overseas and said he had no plans to leave Australia, arguing that the role should focus on Western Australia. Instead, he has visited 16 regions in the state over the past year, including the East Kimberley.
Born and raised in Western Australia, Warner initially studied philosophy, Latin and politics at the University of Western Australia before leaving after about six weeks to go surfing. He later returned to study commerce but abandoned the course after two and a half years.
He entered the public service in an entry-level clerical role and said his understanding of administrative fairness was shaped by work in the Department of Aboriginal Affairs.
Warner recalled visiting a remote community in the West Kimberley where a water supply and septic system had been built in a floodplain. Residents were being blamed for children developing skin diseases, despite the infrastructure decisions having been made by technical specialists, funded by the Commonwealth and implemented by the state.
“It got me thinking about the raw unfairness of it all,” he said.
That experience prompted him to question why people entitled to clean drinking water and a hygienic wastewater system were being held responsible for failures by government organisations.
After working for WA Legal Aid, Warner moved east and spent a decade running Victoria Legal Aid. He later led a community housing provider before returning to Western Australia to take up the Ombudsman’s position.
The WA Ombudsman’s investigations
Known informally as the people’s advocate, the Ombudsman investigates complaints about government agencies and has powers equivalent to those of a Royal Commission to compel the production of documents.
Individual complaints can lead to broader changes. Warner cited the case of a hospital patient whose valuables were lost and whose request for reimbursement was initially refused.
An investigation found weaknesses in administrative procedures and record-keeping around patients’ belongings. The health service agreed to reimburse the complainant, tighten its processes and train hospital staff in better practice.
The office can also launch investigations on its own initiative into wider problems across government.
Warner has confirmed an investigation into Western Australian police interactions with Virginia Giuffre, who was described in the source material as a victim of Jeffrey Epstein, before her death last April. In March, he released a report on family and domestic violence which found that 60 per cent of incidents posed a high risk of serious harm, while only 2.5 per cent were escalated to multi-agency intervention.
The Ombudsman’s office plans to publish a document by the end of the year setting out the themes and issues it intends to examine over the coming years.
Warner said the office’s purpose was not to provide political ammunition for opposition parties, but to help governments improve their performance. He has developed a view that powerful institutions tend to protect their own interests ahead of ordinary citizens, even when those leading them are not acting in bad faith.
He said the office had carried out extensive work to strengthen its internal governance, arguing that it would be hypocritical to identify weaknesses in other organisations without addressing shortcomings in its own systems and processes.
