James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Waste Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bradfield for bringing this important issue before the chamber by way of this motion.

Like any member of parliament here in the room, I obviously deal with a copious number of constituents that have issues accessing the government services they are duly entitled to. Certainly, matters regarding Services Australia are one of the higher volume categories of cases that come through my office, and I'm sure it's quite similar for most members.

The member for Bradfield outlined some very concerning statistics around the performance of processing claims within Services Australia, comparing the last year of our coalition government with the most recent year under the new Labor government. Unfortunately, all the numbers are going the wrong way. The staffing is up, the efficiency of processing is down and, of course, people aren't getting the support they are entitled to from their government, because they're waiting far too long.

In the recent budget, we saw a dramatic increase in the size of the Public Service; 36,000 more public servants are being employed under this government compared to the last year under the coalition. We are certainly not getting 36,000 people's worth of efficiency at Services Australia; that's for sure. It's really galling to people wanting the efficient delivery of government services, those that are waiting for their duly entitled claims to be processed and, frankly, any taxpayer that wants us to have an efficient system that gives people the support that they deserve, processes it in a timely matter and makes sure government can be as efficient as possible.

The new government are bragging about increasing the number of people being employed at Service Australia. I don't know if that's something to be proud of if the performance is commensurately deteriorating at the same time. As the member for Bradfield pointed out, while the size of the workforce has gone up by a couple of thousand, the efficiency in processing and the outcomes for people that matter, when it comes to engaging government resources, are going backwards; the people entitled to it are missing out. Something is really wrong when more people are achieving poorer outcomes in processing those claims.

The member for Bradfield is quite right that there are good ways and bad ways to increase the resources that go towards government service delivery, particularly at Services Australia. I agree with him in commending the former coalition government in New South Wales and the way in which they engaged in digital service delivery and created dramatic efficiencies across a number of government services through their digital government agenda. It's a model that is very worthy of reflecting upon, one that would be good for our Commonwealth government to look at in terms of ways of investing so that people have the best modern experience when it comes to their interaction with the government.

Now, we all deal with individual cases that can be quite complex with Services Australia, with immigration matters, with the NDIS et cetera. It's always very reasonable to respect and understand that there will be at times quite complex matters that need bespoke service delivery and might have a complexity that means that it's not that easy to quickly and rapidly process. But the vast majority should sit within an efficient framework and should indeed be achieving reduced wait times through the performance metrics, particularly as investment in the processing of the claims goes up. They shouldn't be going backwards, like they are right now.

That means that the policy decisions of this government are making are an absolute embarrassment of what they could be and should be achieving for some of the most vulnerable people in our society. So swallow the pride, admit you've got it wrong and look for opportunities to change course and see a focus on policy delivery in Services Australia that is actually going to deliver for some of the most vulnerable people in our society, because right now they're being let down by the performance of this government. They're the ones that need good government more than anyone at all. Instead, they're getting these terrible outcomes from Services Australia. We would like to see the government dramatically improve their performance in this amongst many other areas.

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