Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker Landry, I think this may be the first time that you have been in the chair when I have spoken, so congratulations. I am going to share with the House something quite horrific. I had a grandmother who came to see me last week who was caring for her grandson because of enormous problems within the family. The grandson was about to turn 17 years of age. She was trying to help him apply for the independent youth allowance. He had a certified copy of his birth certificate, but he needed photo ID to get his Medicare card and apply for the allowance. You would think this would be quite straightforward. The thing that I find so horrific is the way that the systems that are in place work against people who are already disempowered and coming from quite a disadvantaged background.

This young man went with his caring grandmother to the motor registry service to obtain a photo ID. They were told he needed an original birth certificate, even though he had a certified birth certificate. The motor registry office regularly sends people up to my office to get documents certified. He had difficulty getting a birth certificate because of the dysfunctional family relationship. He would have to have a parent with him to access this. They were told they needed a letter from the school principal stating that the young man was enrolled at the school; they had that letter. Then they told him he needed a photo ID from the school. They returned to the registry office with an Aboriginal family support officer. They asked to see the grandmother's driver's licence. She had surrendered her licence. She only had a photo ID issued by the motor registry office and they advised that it was unacceptable. So it went round and round and round. Only when the social worker provided her driver's licence was it acceptable.

Then they decided they would try and open a bank account. They went to Westpac and were told to return in an hour. A short time after that, they walked up the road to St George and were told that they had to phone for an appointment. They then went to the Newcastle Permanent Building Society, who were able to open an account for the young man on the spot.

They attended the local Medicare office to request a Medicare card. They were told that the name was already on two cards and that those cards had to be cancelled before another card could be issued. The social worker that was with him asked the Centrelink officer if a claim could be lodged for youth allowance. They were told that that had to be done at Charlestown, not Belmont, as it was a small office. As there were no other customers in the room, they found that hard to understand. The social worker went with the constituents to Charlestown Centrelink. Charlestown Centrelink advised them that they needed to provide a bank card, a Medicare card and a photo ID and that, as soon as the bank cards arrived, they could be sighted. They provided numbers.

The constituents completed forms on the Centrelink computer with the assistance of the customer services officer. They were then given a form to take to the post office for a tax file number. When they went to the post office with the form they had been given by Centrelink, the post office worker said it was the wrong form—two years out of date. They had to go home and do an application online, print it out and then come back. My constituents went home and, due to illness, could not complete the form for a week. They did complete it on 31 August, and it went through smoothly.

They returned to Centrelink to show the cards that were issued. The Centrelink officer asked them why they were bringing them in when they already had the numbers. It had taken so long to get the claims processed. I ask: how long is a piece of string? As legislators, we should see that this is unsatisfactory. We should not be making our constituents jump through these unnecessary hoops. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 12 : 00