Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Providing support to the constituents of Newcastle is really the bread and butter of my role as the federal member for Newcastle. Governments play an important part in shaping our society and making sure that Australians have access to the services and safeguards that we need. The Australian Public Service plays a really vital part in that work. They assist government in developing and delivering on policy agendas and priorities, and the APS, the Australian Public Service, is, of course, a really trusted institution in Australia. The daily workload is phenomenal at times, and the work of public servants continues to both astonish and frustrate communities at different times, sometimes in equal measure.

My office is now working with a lot of people who are trying to work through issues of dealing with different kinds of programs and services and needing assistance to navigate their way through what are sometimes really complex avenues. Whether it's figuring out how to get access to a home-care package, working your way through Services Australia to access any number of the programs through there, presenting at the Department of Veterans' Affairs or finding a bulk-billing doctor, these are all things that we and our staff do in our electorates all the time.

Each day, we hope that the support and advice we provide goes some way to helping ease some of the stress and sometimes distress that people feel when they are faced with unexpected and difficult circumstances. Lately, my office has seen an uptick in constituents contacting us about the wait times and processing times of Services Australia and the NDIA. I know my staff are working with many of you to help ease the stress that this causes, and I want you to know that we hear you, we see you and we are making changes to ensure that this improves.

Wait times at Services Australia have been getting progressively worse for a number of years now, and the root cause of the issue is a conflation of a shocking reduction in staff numbers, as well as a reliance on IT systems that, under the former government—I think we would have to be frank—just simply did not work. Since Labor was last in government, more than a decade ago, the staffing levels at Services Australia have declined, and this enabled shocking schemes like robodebt to really get away from the former government.

Currently, Services Australia gets over one million calls a week. There are 10 million visits into Centrelink offices each year and there are 1.1 billion transactions taking place online. This is a very, very big service delivery. We know that the increasing call wait times and processing delays at Services Australia have caused distress and absolute inconvenience. I see that in my constituents and in those receiving various government payments and income support.

We also know there is no substitute in human services for real humans. We have provided an extra $228 million to increase the agency's frontline staffing and operations. We've rapidly recruited 3,000 frontline staff, bringing 500 new staff into Medicare and 2,500 staff into Centrelink to provide support with these issues around processing and telephony. We started recruiting those extra people in November and December of last year, and they are now in place. These new staff are currently being trained to allow them to effectively help people when they are calling in. Many have completed their initial training and have started on the phones, and we are starting to see some positive results on the number of calls answered and the average wait times. As more people complete initial training and move onto the phones, we'll see those numbers improve and improve.

We've also bolstered the number of interpreters to help the agency engage with culturally and linguistically diverse communities. On top of that, we have put an extra 850 people on just to deal with the natural disasters payment, an issue that affects so many of us in different parts of Australia. The priority is to really blitz that payment backlog. In the current climate, where the cost of living is a factor for many Australians, the agency is working hard to expedite customer outcomes, as it should, and that is the focus for the government.

I know that Novocastrians are also feeling frustrated and stressed by the long processing times within the NDIA. When disability service providers are facing delays when they're trying to register as NDIS providers or waiting for claims to get paid, we know that it's the participants who really feel that, and it means that they're not accessing the services they need when they need them and instead are stuck in limbo, waiting for support. That is not a situation we want to see ever continue.

The NDIS has delivered what is absolutely a better deal for hundreds of thousands of Australians. I see this in my community every day. We were one of the trial sites. Ten thousand people went onto the NDIS as soon as the rollout began. It made phenomenal changes in people's daily lives and quality of life. But we want to do more to achieve that vision of NDIS, so the government, alongside the National Cabinet, has committed to reforming the NDIS to make sure that the disability supports are fairer for all Australians. We know an effective NDIS will improve outcomes for people with disability, help them achieve their life goals and ensure the sustainability of the scheme for future generations.

The independent NDIS review received almost 4,000 submissions and engaged with thousands of people. An overarching goal of the review was to put people with disability back at the centre of the NDIS and to help restore trust, confidence and pride in the NDIS. I want to thank those who took part in this process and who shared their story in order to help shape a better system.

The review was released on 7 December, last year, and included 26 recommendations and 139 supporting actions. The review panel engaged deeply with Australians with disability, carers and the disability sector, as well as the states and territories and other relevant experts, and it will inform how state, federal and territory governments should work together to reform the NDIS. This is a significant moment in Australian history, particularly for people with disability and their families and the disability sector. With Labor in government, we can bring down NDIS costs and improve the experience and outcomes of participants at the same time. It's not an either-or choice for us. I know this is something that the minister is incredibly passionate about, and we'll fight tooth and nail to ensure that we have a system that meets the needs of those it is intended for.

Finally, I just want to update the House on the Albanese Labor government's commitment to ensuring the veteran community is provided with the best possible services and support. With increasing costs of living and rising costs for business, the veteran community have told us that they're finding it harder and harder to find GPs who will treat them without accumulating out-of-pocket expenses. From 1 November, the Labor government tripled the veterans' access payment in an effort to encourage more GPs to service veterans. The veterans' access payment is an incentive that GPs receive, in addition to the Medicare rebate, when treating veterans who hold a DVA gold card or a white card. The tripling of this payment will ensure that GPs continue to service our veterans, with no out-of-pocket costs. Payments apply to general face-to-face and telehealth GP consultations, including home visits for people who are homebound and consultations in residential aged-care facilities. We've also streamlined and reduced the paperwork for GPs; the first package of the 19 most-frequently used forms has now been consolidated down to just seven, while a process is underway to significantly reduce the remaining 54 forms by the middle of this year.

We're working through the big backlog that we inherited, and there is some very good news on that front. As of 31 January this year, the total number of claims yet to be allocated to a delegate at DVA had fallen to 3,697. That's still way too many, but down from that shocking number we inherited.

I want to encourage Novocastrians to keep reaching out to my office. Governments are providing good services; we want to make sure they're the very best they can be, and we're always here for continuous improvement.

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