Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today I would like to raise an issue of great concern to me. One of my constituents, Corrina, contacted my office by writing to me on 9 August. I received the letter on 10 August. It was a horror story that she told of in her letter. On 7 August, Corinna applied for parenting payment and family tax benefit. She completed all the forms; she rang Centrelink to make sure all the forms had arrived. She attended the office with her husband and was given a letter saying that her husband needed to provide an employment separation certificate within 14 days. Being the type of person she is, Corinna immediately got that separation certificate and made sure that Centrelink had it within the 14 days. Corinna then received a rejection letter dated 26 June, which was within that 14-day period. She spoke to Centrelink and was told they would resolve it. She rang customer service officers several times but nothing happened. Corinna rang again on 1 August to make a formal complaint and was told that someone would ring her back within the week. Once again, nothing happened.

In desperation she contacted my office. She also wrote to the Minister for Human Services in the hope that he might help resolve the issue. I believe that the Centrelink office that Corrina contacted is very overworked. It has a lot on its plate at the moment and it does not have the staff and support that it needs. We then took up the case. We contacted Centrelink and had similar sorts of problems: nothing happening and speaking to different people. We contacted the local liaison officer and she said: ‘Well, there’s nothing I can really do if Centrelink don’t want to deal with the matter. It is a Centrelink matter.’ We gave them two working days but finally we resolved the issue.

I received a letter from Corinna at the end of August. Corinna said that she was writing to me:

… to show my appreciation and to thankyou for your help with Centrelink. I am surprised how quickly Centrelink works when we have you to deal with them.

I surprised myself at what lengths we have to go to …

On another note, I did expect Joe Hockey MP to respond eventually, but this was not the case … I am saddened and disappointed because my case has been resolved—

and the minister has totally ignored her and not responded to her letter. I think this is a really big issue and I think that the minister needs to be responsive to constituents— (Time expired)

See this speech in context