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

I rise to speak in relation to the government services portfolio in this consideration-in-detail debate. I note the Minister for Government Services has not bothered to grace us with his presence, which is, I'm sorry to say, entirely typical of the contempt and lack of respect that has been consistently shown by Albanese Labor government ministers during this consideration-in-detail process on the appropriation bill. Time after time, ministers have failed to attend, have failed to participate, have failed to be available to respond to questions. They are showing contempt for the parliamentary process of scrutiny, and it's entirely inconsistent with the rhetoric that we saw from the current Prime Minister, when he was Leader of the Opposition, about the approach that he claimed he was going to bring to governing.

It is perhaps no surprise that the Minister for Government Services is not here to defend what is in this budget in relation to his portfolio. We've seen a promise to spend more than $1.8 billion on more than 7,500 additional bureaucrats. The first point to make is that it's very unclear as to the basis for doing this. On 6 November last year the minister told Chris O'Keefe of 2GB, 'Demand is up on previous use.' In other words, perhaps the stated rationale for hiring more people is there's more to deal with.

But what is fascinating is that in budget estimates just this week officials have conceded that in fact customer demand for this financial year is not up, but down. Nor is there any factual basis for the implied assumption that more public servants will lift service standards. The evidence shows that there is no correlation between more public servants and service standards. Let's start with the proposition that service standards are plummeting under this government. Where's the data? Services Australia is now taking 101 days to process a disability support pension claim. What was it in 2021 to 2022 when the coalition left office? It was taking 40 days on average. Service levels have been absolutely trashed, but staff levels are up. When we left government in 2021-22, the average staffing level at Services Australia was 26,838. As of February 2024, it was 28,570. Staff levels have gone up; service levels have gone down. With increased staff numbers, service levels have in fact got worse.

What we've also seen from this minister is the pausing of automation processes. It is deeply disturbing that the first instinct of the member for Maribyrnong was to distrust and block the use of technologies that are critical to the efficient delivery of government services. The benefits of the use of data and digital services for better customer service outcomes are there for all to see. In the 2022-23 financial year, there were over 3.5 million income support related reports made using the single-touch payroll prefilled data. That is technology making life easier for Australians. The minister's hostility to technology is seen right across the government services portfolio. Funding over the forward estimates for the technology and transformation program will decline, and the execution of the multimillion-dollar Health Delivery Modernisation Program is being done very badly. In February 2024, officials from Services Australia claimed it was going 'extremely well', but in this week's estimates we learned that in fact it's in red status.

Similarly, myGov is stagnating under Labor. It's allocating the bare minimum of funding required to keep this important platform on life support. The myGov user audit recommended a road map setting out the timing of when new features would become available. No road map has been issued. This minister has form in making big promises. In February 2023, he promised that the Commonwealth digital Medicare card would be available by mid-2023 within the Service NSW app. It's June 2024, and it still hasn't happened. I ask the Minister for Government Services: What specific customer analytics inform Services Australia's advice to government on the apparent need for 7,500 additional staff? Will the minister guarantee these staff will be wholly dedicated to telephony and claims processing work? Will the minister lift the pause on automation processes? What's his plan to rescue the Health Delivery Modernisation Program? (Time expired)

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