Justine Keay (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Mallee gave us a little bit of a tutorial on how government finances work and how budgets work. But, clearly, when governments have money they put it into areas that are their priorities. Under this government, older Australians are certainly not a priority. In my electorate of Braddon, I have a disproportionately high number of older Australians in my community. There are approximately 15,000 age pensioners, and many, many more waiting to go onto the age pension in the coming months and years. But what we've seen under this government are constant attacks on older Australians. Every single time, Labor has fought against those attacks.

What we're seeing now inflicted on our older Australians are these ridiculous delays in processing age pension payments, absolutely ridiculous delays. I don't know how many on that side hear from people in their communities about these delays. We never hear people on the other side tell stories of their constituents who come to their office for support, but I feel a bit like a pseudo Centrelink office. People come to me when they're at their wits' end. We know that they are spending their savings while waiting for their payments to be processed. If they don't have savings, what are they doing? How are they surviving? This government doesn't really seem to care that these people are waiting and waiting. The minister talked about processing times, the target time and so forth, but that is not the reality out in voter land at all.

I have many stories of people in my community who have come to me at their wits' end. In May I heard from Marsha from Boat Harbour, who waited seven months to receive her age pension. She kept contacting Centrelink—when she could actually get through—asking, 'What else do I need to provide you?' They said: 'Nothing. You don't need to give us anything else. You just have to wait. There are some delays.' Then there are Annette and her husband from Wynyard, who made an application in July and were informed that their payment would be made on 18 September. That seemed okay, a two-month wait. They could probably wait that out. But, after that, they continually received messages from Centrelink advising them that there was a backlog of applications and there would be a further delay. Four months from the application date, two months after the original advised payment date, Annette and her husband's pension was finally granted, and that was because of my intervention. I'm sure every member on this side has intervened at every opportunity they can to help people access their pension payments.

Geoff from Port Sorell applied for his pension on 28 April this year. After contacting Centrelink on 4 August, four months after lodgement date, to check on what was happening—as you would—he was told he should expect another three to four months delay. Geoff was told that, as he had money in the bank, his modest savings, he would just have to wait a bit longer. I mean, how unfair is this? These people are making decisions to end their employment, to go onto the age pension, they get everything organised, they wait a few months thinking, 'This is okay; I can live with that,' but then are told, 'Oh, no, you've got to wait even longer still.' It shouldn't have to come to that.

I remember doorknocking during the by-election recently when I met Gary from Burnie. I knocked on his door and he said: 'I have been waiting four months for my pension. I don't have any money left. What am I to do?' I said, 'I can help you with that,' but he said, 'I shouldn't have to come to my MP to help me get a payment that I have been waiting four months for.'

This is what the people on the other side don't seem to understand. This is because this government has continued to trash Centrelink staffers, to demonise those workers in our public sector. They're privatising Centrelink by stealth. They're putting people on contracts in labour hire companies—people who are paid less, who are casualised, who don't have security of work, who are dealing with complex Centrelink applications—when we have a public sector who are trained well, who are very, very competent, who are mostly in regional communities like mine. I know the member for Bass has a number of Centrelink staff there as well. But this government wants to privatise that service.

What will Labor do? In my electorate there are 30 empty Centrelink desks—30. We will employ 50 public sector workers to fill those desks. Five of those will be roving Centrelink staff so that they can go to the communities, because not everyone can get on the internet. Not everyone has a computer, nor do they have access, particularly in regional Australia—and I think the regional members would appreciate that. Those staff could go to areas like King Island, Circular Head, the west coast of Tasmania and help those people with complex Centrelink needs and make sure they get their payments processed on time.

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