Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Ask any Australian who has had to contact or access Centrelink, and they will tell you of their own personal nightmare. We've heard stories of people waiting for weeks and even months for payments to be approved and of weeks for MP inquiries to be answered. We've heard stories of people being placed on hold for hours while trying to phone Centrelink. Older Australians will be met with 1.2 million busy signals to Centrelink by the end of this financial year. And we've heard stories of people being wrongly targeted for debt recovery.

This government is trying to make it so difficult, so painful and so frightening for Australians to try to claim Centrelink in the hope that they will give up. The truth is that Centrelink is understaffed and underresourced. The government cut 1,280 job in the department in this year's budget. Last year, it was 1,180. Piece by piece this government is selling Centrelink to private contractors and labour hire firms—Serco, to be exact. Centrelink needs permanent, full-time staff who are properly equipped to manage the complex issues faced by income support recipients.

This government is only interested in demonising vulnerable Australians. Labor believes that our social safety net should allow people to live with dignity—in other words, what is fair. And don't start me on child support, or personal information being handed over to authorities. (Time expired)

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