Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to highlight the government's failure to address the inaccessibility of Centrelink for my constituents. As the member for Hindmarsh, I take this opportunity to share some of the experiences of those in my electorate who are frustrated with the ballooning waiting times when they call Centrelink. If you've called the Centrelink call centre recently, it's not unusual to get an engaged tone. The Department of Human Services' annual report has recently been made available and its findings have confirmed that waiting times are the longest there've been in recent years. Frankly, the findings of the annual report are unacceptable. A year on from the height of the robo-debt debacle, we've seen the government shift to a model of service that is supposed to provide Australians with what they need. Every day, my electorate office receives numerous calls from those aggrieved by the lack of access to Centrelink. Other electorate offices, including from those on the other side of the House, would be familiar with this issue. I've written to the Minister for Human Services about Centrelink waiting times and how they're taking a toll on constituents, mine and others, across the nation, just as I wrote to the minister before him and the minister before him as well. Department of Human Services' staff are working beyond capacity—and I speak to many people who work in the department—with workloads that exceed the available resources. They deserve better than a government that slashes permanent jobs and then, later, outsources them, because that's what's been happening.

Today is an exciting day for many South Australians with the university academic year commencing. Some students attend for the first time and many return for another year. Some will have to speak to Centrelink as the year finishes. Approximately one-fifth of the calls to Centrelink are from students. It's appalling to know that, at such an important time in the academic year, with many needing assistance and trying to do the right thing, they won't be able to get through. We need this government to do more than have Centrelink direct our pensioners and others to resolve their issues by going online. Many pensioners don't have the capacity to go online. Many pensioners from non-English-speaking backgrounds don't have the capacity to go online. Many don't have access to computers. We see this degradation time and time again: people who basically don't have the skills to be able to go on the internet are told, 'Go online and fix your problem,' which is impossible.

What the government are doing is killing the system just to outsource it, as we've seen with Australia Post, for example. They run it into the ground and then privatise and outsource. That's what we see from this government. The Centrelink system is broken and the government continue to prioritise crackdowns in other areas, but they don't want to address the 55 million unanswered calls. They're not calls that waited and were answered; they're unanswered calls. I'm very proud to stand for the constituents of Hindmarsh on this matter. I call on the government to end this crisis and invest in more permanent staff so they can support Centrelink clients and all the applications.