Andrew Gee (Calare, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. They are worried about their preselections, on that side of the House. There were 1,100 staff cut under Labor. They were all telephony staff, yet Labor complain here about telephone waiting times. They are the ones who cut 1,100 staff from Centrelink. It is absolutely extraordinary.

If you go through the performance of Centrelink, you will see there is a great story to tell. Every year, the Department of Human Services handles 56 million phone calls and 21 million face-to-face visits. It met over 86 per cent of its performance measures to the community in 2015-16. It is not perfect, granted. It still has a little bit of work to do, but 86 per cent is pretty good, in my book. As at 2 October this year, the average time taken to answer Centrelink phone lines was 11.4 minutes. That is well below the department's key performance indicator of 16 minutes, despite the 1,100 staff cuts that were imposed by Labor—appalling.

Despite the mess that those on the other side of the House made, great strides are being made in service delivery. You just have to look at the myGov initiative to see that. You can log in to the departmental website using a PIN. It is all there for you. Dealing with the Department of Human Services is being revolutionised under the hardworking Minister for Human Services. I acknowledge the great work he has done. He is moving the department into the modern age. The myGov initiative allows everyone to access the site 24 hours a day. Millions are starting to use it. There are 10 million Australian now with a myGov account, which is a fantastic achievement. I salute the government for its work in this field.

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