Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—On behalf of the member for Bradfield, I move:

That this House:

(1) notes:

(a) the release of Services Australia's 2022-23 annual report, which confirmed that customer satisfaction and other key performance measures went backwards;

(b) that Services Australia has become a basket case under the current Government, with    .sky-rocketing call and claims processing wait times; and

(c) that the under performing Minister for Government Services reduced Services Australia's average staffing levels in the 2023-24 budget and decreased funding for technology and transformation;

(2) acknowledges the work of the former Government in ensuring service delivery was seamless, simple and safe, with a strong emphasis on digital uplift; and

(3) calls on the Government to help get Services Australia back on track by launching a root and branch review into the embattled agency.

This is an important motion. It concerns Services Australia, which is often the most critical government department and is the interface between many Australians and the federal government. It delivered over $200 billion in payments and services to Australia. Therefore, its performance, and the performance of the minister who is overseeing this department, after 18 months is critical.

Firstly, I want to note that the release of Services Australia's 2022-23 annual report has unfortunately confirmed that customer satisfaction and other key performance measures to do with this agency have in fact gone backwards. Secondly, Services Australia has become a basket case under the current government, with skyrocketing wait times for calls and claims processing. Thirdly, it's been shown that, after 18 months, the Minister for Government Services has in fact reduced Services Australia's average staffing levels in the 2023-24 budget and decreased funding for technology and transformation.

When we go through the agency's 2022-23 annual report, it does not make for good reading. First of all, the agency has failed to meet key performance targets, particularly around customer satisfaction—that is, where customers are served within 15 minutes. Work processes within timeliness standards and call wait times—all of these measures have gone backwards. Call wait times are a particularly acute area of failure. In 2021-22, over half of the customers who called social security and welfare were answered in 15 minutes. In 2022-23, under the Labor government—under Minister Shorten—only 36 per cent were answered within 15 minutes, and new data obtained by the opposition in Senate estimates now reveals that the wait time has blown out to 53 minutes and 26 seconds on average. That's almost an hour of being on hold for Australians trying to deal with Services Australia. This is simply not good enough.

This is not Services Australia; this is 'dis-Services Australia' or 'no-Services Australia'. Call wait times, particularly, are getting worse because of this government's ideological crusade against outsourced labour, and, in that regard, we learnt midyear that a major call centre contract with Serco had been axed, with 600 jobs for people answering phones cut.

Claim-processing time is another key performance measure that has also skyrocketed under Labor. My electorate office continues to receive calls and emails for help from worried constituents trying to deal with Services Australia. We know from data disclosed by Minister Bill Shorten that claims-processing times have been lost. From July last year to August this year, it took on average 98 days for a childcare subsidy related payment to be processed, 61 days for the age pension to be processed and 80 days for the disability support pension to be processed. This is simply not good enough—absolutely not good enough.

Particularly, we saw that the minister did call for a review of myGov.

It's a plain fact that most Australians prefer to interact with Services Australia via digital means. For every face-to-face transaction in 2022-23, there were 110 online transactions. MyGov is Australia's single largest authenticated digital platform. At the moment, though, it's a cumbersome and difficult platform. The minister did have an audit of myGov and got the results in January, and it wasn't until November that the minister announced that he will make some changes—and I do applaud him for this. He's engaged former New South Wales Liberal minister the Hon. Victor Dominello, who will be taking up the reins at myGov and hopefully transforming myGov in the way that he did in New South Wales. I do commend the minister for pulling across a New South Wales Liberal to assist with this transformation, but digital transformation at Services Australia must be a major priority.

In the longer term, improving digital engagement saves taxpayers money, saves their time and improves overall agency efficiency. But the minister must now have a full review of Services Australia to increase these efficiencies, and I call for that today.

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