Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today as honoured as ever to represent the wonderful electorate of Macarthur in south-west Sydney. As I have remarked many times in this place since coming into office in 2016, I'm immensely proud to represent the people of Macarthur. My community is unique. It's a vibrant, outer-metropolitan region with a rural and regional charm. The people of Macarthur are decent, hardworking Australians from all walks of life. As a local paediatrician for nearly four decades, I think I have a special insight into their day-to-day lives and the challenges that families have and the essential role that government and services play in making their lives easier.

Unfortunately, my constituents, in the community that I know and love, feel let down by the present government. I don't want to be overly negative at this point but will plead with the government, once again, to take heed of my advice.

The reality is that far too many of our older Australians are having difficulty in accessing supports through social security. We know that far too many calls to Centrelink went unanswered last year, and this is a direct result of the government's cuts to staff. Still, to this day, I am contacted by constituents who are waiting many months for their age-pension applications to be processed. These are people who are legally entitled to access the pension; yet they're left to wait many months before they can get any payment from the federal government through Centrelink. They're literally living in poverty, while their applications sit in a pending tray in the Department of Human Services. We know that many older Australians are waiting for up to nine or 10 months for their payments to commence, and it appears that this issue is completely unresolved. Usually, I can get some results for my elderly constituents who have trouble contacting Centrelink, and I encourage them to continue to contact my office to see if we can help. But this is a government that seems completely uncommitted to resolving the issues at Centrelink for the most disadvantaged in our community. If Labor form government, we'll boost Centrelink with another 1,200 permanent full-time jobs to improve Centrelink services and make life easier for pensioners.

I've already spoken this week about the mismanagement of the NDIS—and it is mismanagement. There are systemic problems with the NDIS which this government ignores and presents platitudes in the parliament whenever questioned about it. The government know my advice and they need to act on it urgently. Macarthur residents who are already struggling with the rising cost of living have experienced stagnant wage growth and some have had their penalty rates cut by those opposite. I know how important those penalty rates are in making ends meet for some of the families who are really struggling. Labor are committed to re-enforcing and returning penalty rates to those who have lost them. Labor have a range of fantastic policy initiatives that we have previously discussed with the fair go for all Australians.