Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to emphasise how disappointed we were, Australia-wide, to hear the news we had 55 million calls unanswered at Centrelink offices across the country. This is particularly important in my electorate. Our Centrelink is one of the busiest places in our city. In the last few years my office on average has assisted 5,000 constituents a year. A lot of that work is in communication with Centrelink. I mention the member for Aston, being the Minister for Human Services, and the Minister for Social Services—those who are responsible for the robo-debt scandal; responsible for sending debt collectors to wrongly accused and wrongly pursued people; responsible for Centrelink; responsible for demonising my community by publishing numbers in a demonising way; and responsible for cutting staff, leaving public servants incapable of delivering the standard of service that we have come to expect and deserve.

I want to highlight to the House that there is a minimum five-day turnaround for calls from my office to our local Centrelink, so I have a lot of empathy for the 55 million calls that went unanswered, because we are accustomed to a much quicker return rate when an MPs office makes an inquiry. This is not good enough, and both ministers are on notice that I will continue to raise this issue. I will raise it for men like John McIver, a constituent of mine who worked until he was 75. When he turned 75 he applied for the age pension, on 1 March this year, and for the pension bonus. This is a man who every Australian would consider to be deserving of accessing the age pension. It took until 5 December for his payments to begin. I can't imagine what he needed to prove, when he gave up work at 75, so that he could access the age pension. This week, he finally heard that he was going to get it and he received a payment. I do it for Peter Grant, whose case I raised on 29 March this year for the disability support pension, which was finally approved in November with eight weeks back pay. I raised it here on 29 March, long after he had first put in an application for the DSP. This is not good enough. These people are not just deserving; they are entitled to access services in a timely manner. While those opposite celebrate a reduction in the number of people accessing support, this House should know that these figures reflect a failure—a failure of those opposite.