Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the delivery of the Services Australia Security Risk Management Review and the minister's statement today. I thank the minister for his engagement with me on this issue. Regrettably, the circumstances around this review are distressing. The review arises from a serious incident in May this year in which a Services Australia staff member, Ms Joeanne Cassar, was the victim of a vicious physical attack at Airport West service centre in Melbourne. I note that the individual circumstances of the incident are the subject of a Comcare investigation and criminal proceedings, as well as internal consideration by Services Australia. On behalf of the opposition, I again offer my thoughts and best wishes to Ms Cassar and her family. By all reports, she is a well-respected and dedicated public servant, and I'm sure all of us in this House are grateful for her work, serving Australians who are customers of Services Australia. I also acknowledge that many other staff at the Airport West service centre witnessed, or were otherwise disturbed by, this confronting incident.

In my brief remarks I want to express my strong support for the principle that workplace safety must be upheld, and I also want to urge the minister that in addition to his commendable and absolutely correct concern for the welfare of staff, it's important that he shows concern for customers and demonstrates a customer service mindset. Let me be clear: every Australian has the right to be safe in their workplace. This is fundamental and paramount. We know that those who are in customer-facing roles, whether in government or the private sector, can face risks that those who are not in such roles do not face. Of course much of the work undertaken by the Australian Public Service is customer facing, and Services Australia is right at the forefront of that.

Thousands of staff at Services Australia have continuing and regular engagement with the Australian public, particularly staff engaged at service centres, access points, agent sites and mobile services centres. We know of course that the cost-of-living crisis means that more Australians are having cause to interact with Services Australia, many of whom are in difficult and constrained circumstances. Sadly, a small percentage of them—and it must be acknowledged that it is a very small percentage—find themselves engaging in antisocial or violent behaviour. There is never an excuse, of course, for such behaviour, but it does underline the importance of a comprehensive response from this government to the cost-of-living crisis, which is challenging many Australians.

It is appropriate that Services Australia and the government continuously monitor the security arrangements in place for employees of Services Australia. I note that there are some legislative changes recommended. The opposition will consider those in the normal way. I want to highlight a particular passage in the review which reads as follows:

The current design of contemporary service centres, which are being gradually rolled out nationwide are well received from an aesthetic aspect as they create a positive and welcoming atmosphere for customers. Staff concerns though are that the design is too customer focused and presents considerable safety risks to staff.

This nationwide upgrade of service centres began under the coalition, and we transformed more than 100 service centres. The current government, according to information received through Senate estimates, is presiding over a backlog of 218 service centres which are still yet to be upgraded.

The approach to upgrading service centres to better meet the expectation of customers draws on the considerable success achieved under the former coalition government in New South Wales and the work of Minister for Customer Service Victor Dominello. In Service NSW, there was a focus on encouraging greater self-service, particularly via digital channels, eliminating bottlenecks, and creating and fostering a strong and respectful customer service culture. That 'customer first, citizen first' focus of the former New South Wales Minister Dominello was an inspiration for the decision of the former coalition government to create Services Australia in 2019. So it is somewhat puzzling to see, in the passage I read above, a complaint about the design of a service centre being too customer focused.

Services Australia is a customer-facing organisation. It needs to be customer focused, and there needs to be strong leadership continue to foster and develop a customer services culture at Services Australia. Of course staff safety must be maintained and protected. But one of the principles that has been demonstrated with Service NSW is that if you have service centres that respond better to the needs of customers, providing them with a smoother and more efficient process, where they are waiting for a shorter period of time and have a higher likelihood of getting a satisfactory outcome from their interaction, that has many benefits, one of which is that it contributes to them being a safer environment.

Unfortunately, the current minister's track record demonstrates that he is, sadly, presiding over the opposite of a customer service culture. We saw recently, on 9 October, a union-led strike at Services Australia, which resulted in the closure of three service centres and caused an uptick in waiting times across the Services Australia network. The minister wasn't bothered by this. He didn't front up to explain how he was dealing with the union led-strike, nor did he apologise to affected Australians.

We know that under this minister's watch a major contract with call centre operator Serco has been axed. Now, I've got no particular brief for Serco or any other operator, but what we do know is that the data from Services Australia obtained by the opposition shows that call centre waiting times have rocketed under this minister. The waiting time for Australians calling the employment services line is now on average almost 30 minutes. That is well up from where it stood under the coalition in 2021-22.

The opposition has consistently asked the minister and his agency to release data—data, I might say, that the former coalition government freely provided to the public and the then opposition—on how long Australians are having to wait in line at service centres. Each and every time, these uncontroversial requests have been blocked. Don't just take my word for it; take the word of Services Australia's long-time agency spokesman Mr Hank Jongen, who admitted live on radio in August that widespread delays to the processing of paid parental leave was a result of understaffing. He said, 'In reality, we are understaffed in our service delivery postcodes', adding that 'we are currently actively trying to recruit staff to help us address call centre and processing delays.'

Sadly, I don't have the time to go at full length into just how much this minister has dropped the ball in relation to digital transformation. But this review indeed hints at the digital paralysis that is gripping Services Australia. The review mentions a customer aggression reporting dashboard that is yet to be finalised. One of the reasons it probably hasn't been finalised is that this minister has fired over 1,000 specialist ICT personnel. Of course safety is of first importance but so too is customer service, where this minister has dropped the ball.

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