​Judi Jones hired as new Telco Industry Ombudsman

Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Judi Jones.

New Zealand Electricity and Gas Complaints Commissioner Judi Jones will take up the role of Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) in March 2016.

She will replace Simon Cohen who left the TIO in August after five years to take up a role as Consumer Affairs Victoria deputy secretary at the state’s Department of Justice and Regulation.

Diane Carmody is currently acting TIO Ombudsman.

TIO board chair Patricia Faulkner said Jones was chosen due to her experience in alternative dispute resolution, management and the law. She had been in the Electricity and Gas Complaints Commissioner role since 2002.

“Jones is a clear leader in alternative dispute resolution, as well as possessing exceptional management skills, having overseen her organisation being named among the top employers in New Zealand for the past five years,” Faulkner said.

Jones said she was looking forward to working with TIO staff and the telecommunications industry in continuing TIO’s work of resolving compliants in a way that is “fair and indepoendenet.”

She is also the chair of ANZOA, the peak body in Australia and New Zealand for ombudsmen working in industry-based, parliamentary and statutory ombudsman offices.

The TIO yesterday revealed released its quarterly complaints statistics, revealing a 4.6 per cent increase in complaints linked to National Broadband Network services in the July-September period.