Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges that during the earliest onset of the coronavirus pandemic, many Australian families found themselves unexpectedly in need of government support; and

(2) pays its deepest gratitude and thanks to all the women and men of Services Australia for their efforts in supporting their fellow Australians during this time of crisis.

Today, I'd like to thank the tens of thousands of workers at Services Australia. They've been staffing our national safety net during the COVID-19 pandemic. We regularly and rightly acknowledge our doctors and other frontline health workers, our aged-care workers and our disability care workers. But perhaps less present at the front of our mind are the myriad of workers who are helping Australians in their hour of financial need. So I want to say thank you to the people who work at Services Australia, formerly Centrelink. It is a workforce that deals with people often at their most stressed, emotional and strung out. Losing a job is a grieving period. It feels like a kick in the guts. It is stressful. It is a shock to people: families not knowing how to make the rent and wondering how they'll pay for the budget and what meals they will have to skip so their kids don't. Centrelink has been dealing recently with a mass influx of people who are not used to being on the social security queues. People have lost their jobs or lost hours of work. They are economic victims of the pandemic.

These Centrelink workers are a workforce who are often not in control of the resources that their government gives them. They are a workforce on which this current government has imposed an arbitrary staffing cap. This led prior to the pandemic to the usual problems of mass workloads, casualisation, outsourcing and the loss of corporate knowledge. But this year, on top of the last number of difficult years, has perhaps been the biggest for Services Australia in living memory, from dealing with the bushfire response across much of Australia in December and January to managing the surge, the tsunami, in new applicants for JobSeeker allowance that arose through March and April. These are rewarding frontline service jobs, but they are undoubtedly tough. The members of this staff, this workforce, deserve our gratitude for their efforts, particularly over the last few months. For more than four years, this battered workforce has repeatedly raised concerns about the robodebt debt-raising scandal, only to have them ignored by those more senior in government. This government was determined to harass, bully and unlawfully intimidate hundreds of thousands of Australians just so it could prop up its budget.

The government had the opportunity to transform the culture of Centrelink when we debated legislation to establish Services Australia in this chamber earlier this year. They had the opportunity to reconsider their ways at the start of the pandemic and to provide good-quality, secure jobs by supporting Labor's principled amendments to abolish the arbitrary staffing cap imposed by this government. Instead, we've seen this government, even at the height of the pandemic, sack over 400 workers from Serco and Datacom just a month ago. People who had worked up to two years acquiring knowledge were just shoved out the door. Imagine thanking the hardworking people who've been carrying the workload during the pandemic by sacking them. Imagine cutting their contracts with 10 days notice and letting them loose without any permanent leave or redundancy. The staffing cap was placed across the public sector in 2013 without weighing up the capabilities and requirements of every agency or department. The staffing cap is a cut in real staffing numbers. It is a privatisation policy by stealth. Agencies are forced to outsource, contract out, spend exorbitant amounts on consultants and engage labour hire contractors to make up for a lack of in-house resources.

When I say thank you to the Services Australia staff, I want to say that help is on its way if Labor wins the next election, and I sincerely hope that we will. Labor believes that human services delivery should be defined by fair and equal government services for all citizens. Labor in government will build a human services delivery system that is crisis capable, one equipped with resources to deal with national disasters of all descriptions on an ongoing basis. Labor believes that the design of government services should place people at the centre. We will embrace new technologies to provide convenient, more efficient and more effective delivery of services, but these will be supported by access to face-to-face services and in-person support where people need and want this. Under Labor, technology and service delivery will always use appropriate oversight, appropriate levels of checking and meaningful human engagement. We will not use technology to override the rights of individuals. We will not use technology to create a digital workhouse for the poor and the vulnerable. We'll provide proper dignity. We should have faith—Australians should have faith—that we have a crisis-capable system in our social security safety net. We believe in actual human service. Services Australia workers, we respect your contribution. Thank you very much.

Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you to the member for Maribyrnong for bringing forward this important and apolitical debate today. At the end of any year, it's normal to look back and reflect on what has happened, but of course 2020 was no normal year. From drought to bushfires and, of course, the pandemic, this year has been like no other. But underscoring all these things has been one common thread: hardship. Millions of Australians have had their lives turned upside down this year. People have lost work, families have struggled to put food on the table and people have been at their wits' end.

When people are facing times like these, they turn to the government. Thankfully, the government has been here to help. As at 13 November 2020, over $8.9 billion has been paid in economic support payments across both rounds, as well as $16 billion paid in coronavirus supplement. Since 16 March 2020, more than 1.8 million JobSeeker claims have been finalised. Additionally, pandemic leave, disaster payments, childcare changes, pauses in debt recovery and one-off pension payments have all helped Australians through these tough times.

But none of these reforms would have made any difference without the incredible staff at Services Australia to help those who need it most. Staff from Services Australia have been working to deliver new and improved income support measures and fast-track the Australian government's coronavirus financial support. While people were staying at home to stay safe, Services Australia stayed open to ensure that everyone who needed help could access them, even if they didn't have access to a phone or the internet. Throughout the pandemic 80 per cent of Services Australia's workers remained in their offices, and the sheer numbers of those who are working is incredible. At the peak of demand, April 2020, almost 12,000 staff were assisting the agency to manage its response to COVID-19. This comprised of 3,414 redeployed Services Australia employees; over 1,700 redeployed employees from at least 37 different APS departments and agencies; 6,774 new employees, including 1,546 non-ongoing and casual employees; 3,125 labour hire employees; and 2,103 employees through our services delivery partners.

In 2019-20, the agency processed almost five million social security and welfare claims—that's over 1.4 million more claims than would normally have been processed and equates to around 10 claims processed every minute. This financial year, as of 6 November 2020, the agency has processed almost 1.9 million social security claims, almost 70 per cent more claims processed when compared with the same period last financial year. The agency also answered over 1.1 million more social security and welfare calls than in the previous financial year. As of 6 November 2020, the agency is processing the majority of social security and welfare claims in less than a week, and the average speed of answer for social security and welfare calls is 86 seconds. This is incredible not just for the processing times but more importantly for the comfort and certainty that this sort of efficiency brings to people who are having their worlds turned upside down.

Services Australia have also invested heavily in their digital capacity through the myGov system. It now has capacity to support 300,000 concurrent users, up from approximately 90,000 concurrent users, which has been essential this year. From average daily sign-ins of 503,000 in the financial year, myGov has rapidly increased to average daily sign-ins of 741,000, primarily due to COVID-19. The busiest day saw over four million sign-ins into myGov accounts compared to the previous record of 1.8 million logins during the July tax time peak last year.

I would like to end by thanking everyone who has been working tirelessly at Services Australia across the country, particularly in Bennelong. Nathan and his team at Ryde do incredible work to ensure that everyone in Bennelong has access to the government services they need, and we cannot thank them enough. (Time expired)

Libby Coker (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the shadow minister's motion, acknowledging the fantastic work of Services Australia. 2020 has been an unbelievably challenging year for so many Australians, and it is the role and responsibility of Services Australia to be there for Australians when they need support and assistance in their time of need. For many it will be the first time they have needed this help, help to put food on the table, pay the bills and pay for the school shoes. In response the staff at Services Australia have done a fantastic job under extremely difficult circumstances, and it is right this House recognises that contribution.

I salute the employees and leadership at Services Australia. Their hard work has kept so many safe and secure through a year that so many will be happy to see end. This year has seen Services Australia launch an online intent-to-claim function through the myGov portal. This function has made it easier to register for desperately needed financial supports. It also eliminates the need for applicants to wait on hold or online to access Services Australia.

The myGov portal has also been upgraded. The previous capacity of 6,000 users at one time was lifted in March to 40,000 and then to 150,000. In a single day in March, myGov facilitated 2.6 million logins. By comparison the previous busiest day ever was during the 2019 tax concession season, which saw 1.8 million logins, 800,000 fewer than 25 March of this year. Services Australia also announced 5,000 extra staff in the first quarter of this year. These staff helped to roll out more services faster to Australian people.

All of this work must be recognised and applauded. Services Australia employees should be proud of what they've achieved this year. It must be said that Services Australia will always be necessary. It is important that the staff continue to deliver services at a high standard for our country. But the Morrison government's plan for the future will put too much pressure on this organisation. In the budget the government released two months ago they planned for unemployment to be worse next year than it was at the peak of the pandemic. This is their plan: they intend to withdraw economic supports before the economy has recovered. On 6 October the Morrison government printed in black and white their intention to keep unemployment well above five per cent for the next four years. They plan for about one million Australians to be unemployed this year, next year and the year after that. That is their plan, and this is a disgrace.

So while I pay tribute today to the amazing work that Services Australia staff have done over 2020 I also want to stress one extremely important message: this government should not be planning on keeping that many Australians out of employment. No government should ever plan to keep that many citizens out of employment. In setting this strategy the government is planning for more suffering and increasing the difficulty of the job of Services Australia in the process. It's not good enough. This country needs a government with vision. It needs a government that has a holistic jobs plan, that manufactures here in Australia and that embraces new opportunities and new jobs in renewables, waste and recycling, electric vehicles, our universities and vocational schools, and emerging industries.

Part of the plan needs to be to increase JobSeeker beyond $40 a day. This is unacceptable, uncaring and stops people from effectively searching for work. We see ad hoc programs and bandaid solutions, but no underlying plan to carry Australia well beyond COVID. Labor, if elected, will deliver a plan for Services Australia that puts people first. It will make sure that this plan is compassionate and gets people back to rewarding, secure work.

The shadow minister for government services has done well in presenting this motion to the House. This is an issue the shadow minister is passionate about and well versed in. I'd like to acknowledge his tireless advocacy on behalf of Australians, especially those employed by Services Australia. I take pride in standing with the shadow minister in saying thank you to those at Services Australia for their efforts, their calm under pressure and their compassion in helping Australia through one of the greatest challenges we've ever faced.

Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I call the member for Monash. It's good to see you back.

Russell Broadbent (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. It's good to be back. Like many, I applaud the member for Maribyrnong for this motion he has moved in regard to Services Australia. The word I've noticed most this year has been 'pivot'. We have had to pivot and businesses have had to pivot. We and our own staff have had to be flexible and pivot in the way we do our jobs and understand what is happening within our communities. Services Australia also have had to pivot. They realised immediately that they had great responsibility thrust upon them. But it is not only Services Australia. The member for Maribyrnong, the Hon. Bill Shorten, said in his motion that this House:

… pays its deepest gratitude and thanks to all the women and men of Services Australia for their efforts in supporting their fellow Australians during this time of crisis.

It surely was a time of crisis. I particularly note today that this crisis affected every department and every portfolio across the Public Service and, therefore, the Australians that they support.

I am keen to acknowledge this parliament's appreciation for the way that our public service, who are often maligned, have been praised in this case. They've been praised for good reason. Their job became harder within 24 hours. Their delivery services were tested to the limit. They had to pivot and change and develop and seek new ways and think outside the box, 'How can we deliver this service under these circumstances?' And they did it—each departmental secretary all the way down. Everybody had a responsibility. They understood their responsibility in this Great South Land, and they went out and they delivered on behalf of the Australian people to the point where the shadow minister Bill Shorten brought this motion before the parliament to give us a chance to say thank you—thank you not only to those in very senior positions whose faces we may have seen daily on our televisions but also to everybody else who gave up their time, made the effort and gave valued experience—I want to repeat that, 'gave valued experience'—doing the jobs that needed to be done on behalf of Australians. So, this was the point where 'we're all in this together' came together, because without the support of that public service, of Services Australia and every other portfolio and department, we wouldn't have been able to achieve the outcome we have in this nation. I applaud the Prime Minister and his team and the premiers and their team for what they have achieved, and they achieved it on our behalf.

I was blessed. Even though I lived in a COVID-lockdown zone, there were practically no cases in our area and we survived. In fact, the whole of my electorate of Monash was practically free of COVID for the whole time. But everybody took their responsibilities seriously. Everybody took steps. I don't know how embarrassed any of you have been when you've jumped out of the car without your mask and ended up standing in a shop where you think, 'Why is everybody looking at me?'—because we are able to get the message out through Services Australia. There were recalcitrant people; there always are. But basically—in Victoria especially—every family, every household everywhere, right across the state, country or city really stood up. You didn't mind if you were stuck in a line of cars 700 metres long and couldn't get through the roadblock and you couldn't get to your appointment, or if you couldn't get here and you couldn't do that, but we did pivot. We did things really innovatively. We did use the phone more often than we normally would. We probably saved the government a lot of money not having meeting after meeting after meeting. I'm grateful for this opportunity to thank Services Australia and all the public servants.

Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to thank the member for Maribyrnong for bringing this very important motion to the House. This year has no doubt been tough. So many people who have never been unemployed before suddenly found themselves in the queues at Services Australia, or Centrelink as we know it, applying for government help. When you have always had a job and never thought you would have to rely on the government for help, it is a really tough thing to do. It's a story I have heard over and over again. Not only that, many people had to navigate that system for the first time, creating a Customer Reference Number, or CRN, and getting registered in the system. It could be confusing and difficult, and it often needed guidance from a person on the other end of the phone.

In my electorate of Gilmore on the New South Wales South Coast, we saw more than 5,000 additional people accessing JobSeeker and youth allowance between December 2019 and June 2020. That was almost double the number of recipients receiving help due to the pandemic. But it didn't start with a pandemic. We had the added challenge of the bushfires, with more than 1,200 homes lost or severely damaged and many more people impacted financially.

From early on, I insisted that the government make the disaster recovery payment and the disaster recovery allowance available to those who had been impacted. Both of these payments are accessed through Centrelink. With everything our community has been through this year it can sometimes be easy to overlook essential workers, like those at Centrelink. These public servants come to work every day. They came through the bushfires, floods and the pandemic to make sure that others were getting the help they needed. They endured extremely difficult circumstances, with funding cuts and staffing cuts making their jobs more difficult than they should be. They listened to the harrowing stories of their friends and neighbours throughout the bushfires. They were not strangers in call centres overseas. They were locals who were also getting up every day to the smoke that permeated everything. Many had received evacuation orders and felt the stress and trauma we all did, not knowing where the fire would hit next. Their own homes and families had been under threat, but they came to work. They listened to people's stories. They helped them navigate the system and they made sure they were getting the help they needed. It was tough work. It was emotional and stressful, but they did it.

Then came the pandemic. There were lines out the doors, for hours, of people who—overnight—had lost their jobs. The government's online system couldn't hack it. It crashed from the surge of people going online to access the services. So, instead, people went into their local Centrelink office. It has been a really tough year for everyone across Australia. Our public servants in Centrelink were not immune to what was going on around them. They also did it very tough. I want to thank them for everything they did throughout these very trying times, for being there when we needed them most.

The reality is, this government has made the job for workers in Centrelink harder than it should be. There have been Public Service cuts and restrictive guidelines for disaster payments that haven't fit the reality of the situation on the ground. Robodebt is another clear example of where the government has utterly failed Centrelink workers. The list goes on. But there is another wave of challenges coming: when the government's planned cuts to JobSeeker come into effect and when the government's planned changes to JobKeeper force people back into unemployment queues once more.

We simply cannot afford to see those crucial lifelines ripped away too soon. We need a permanent increase to JobSeeker. We need to see the coronavirus supplement extended further, so it can do its job in supporting the most vulnerable in our community. JobKeeper must keep going for as long as it is needed in the industries that need it. Again, I call on the government to not rip away these supports too soon. We are not out of the woods yet. While restrictions remain in place, local people, local workers, local small-business owners, will need this support. Ripping it away means that our workers in Centrelink will be forced to have increasingly difficult conversations with their neighbours. They'll be forced to turn desperate people away. They'll be forced to work longer hours and watch longer queues. It simply isn't fair on anyone.

Celia Hammond (Curtin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to speak on this private member's motion. I too acknowledge and thank everyone who works with Services Australia for all they've done for us, during this COVID pandemic, through their work with Medicare, Centrelink and child support payments. Being a frontline service provider in any service organisation is a really difficult job. It's a really difficult task. Being a frontline service provider in pandemic times—when more people than normal have lost their jobs, people are ill, people are scared—is even more difficult and more daunting.

In normal times, the work done by Services Australia is huge. The figures from 2018 to 2019 show this. In 2018-19, Services Australia made payments totalling $184 billion. There were more than 3.5 million social security and welfare claims, more than 420 million Medicare services, more than 63,000 aged-care claims and around 980 million interactions with individual Australians. They are significant in and of themselves, but, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the work of the staff of Services Australia and the pressure on staff have increased dramatically. Services Australia has been at the forefront of the Australian government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, providing support to millions of Australians. And, in an environment that is rapidly evolving due to both the health advice we've been given and the policy settings that we've had, they have had to adapt and change in a remarkably quick time.

Services Australia centres have remained open throughout the entire pandemic. Since March, they have delivered more than $24 billion in additional payments and processed more than 1.8 million JobSeeker claims, providing income support to people in need. As at 13 November, $16 billion in coronavirus supplement has been paid to new and existing eligible income support recipients in addition to their usual payments. Around $9 billion has been paid to seven million lower income Australians, and over $16 million has been paid in pandemic leave disaster payments to almost 12,000 people across the various states. More than 300 items have been added to the Medicare Benefits Schedule in this time period, and over $2.54 billion has been paid for these items. At the peak of demand, there were almost 12,000 staff who were assisting the agency to manage its response to COVID. That sounds like a lot, but, when you put it in the context of what they did, it is actually extraordinary. This financial year, as at 6 November, the agency has processed close to 1.9 million social security claims—almost 70 per cent more claims processed when compared with the same period last financial year. As at 6 November 2020, the agency is processing the majority of social security and welfare claims in less than a week, so not only are they doing more but they are doing it quicker. The agency answered over 1.1 million more social security and welfare calls than in the previous financial year. They've upgraded the myGov capacity to support 300,000 concurrent users, up from approximately 90,000 concurrent users. They've gone from an average daily sign-in of 503,000 in 2018-19 to sign-ins of up to 741,000 in the full year 2019-20. The busiest day throughout this pandemic saw over four million sign-ins to myGov accounts compared to the previous record of 1.8 million logins during the July tax time peak period last year.

These are the statistics, but it's about the people behind the statistics who have gone to work every day. Sometimes they've faced abuse; sometimes they've faced a barrage of insults. They've had to deal with people who are crying in front of them, who are angry in front of them, or who don't actually know what they're doing. In my electorate of Curtin, four times as many people had to apply for JobSeeker than had ever done so before. These additional people had never been through the system before, so they had to navigate the system, and it was the service staff at Services Australia who helped them navigate. Yes, there have been some tensions at times, but I think everybody in Australia—even those who have experienced those tensions—could appreciate and understand why. To all the staff who have worked at Services Australia, I say a deep and sincere thankyou.

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

I acknowledge the member for Maribyrnong for bringing this motion to this chamber today. I think it's incredibly important. In my local community at the moment, a lot of my work is about acknowledging the work of essential workers as we work through the pandemic and finding people to celebrate and announce as Lalor heroes. What the member for Maribyrnong's motion does today is shine a light on those who work in government services. None of us in this chamber will ever forget the queues around our local Centrelink offices when this pandemic and the recession began. How could we ever forget? We saw person upon person, many of whom were standing in a queue in front of a Centrelink for the first time in their lives. I know I went down to our local Centrelink and spoke to people in those lines and spoke to the staff. I spoke to many people as they left after getting support from government services staff. I was astounded at the way they told me that they really appreciated the support that they had been given and the patience that they'd been seen with.

Working for government services during this pandemic has really shone a light on how important that work is and how important that public-facing aspect of this work is and how important it is for people, on potentially the worst day of their lives, to actually have a human being to speak to. Nothing is more important in times of heightened anxiety than person-to-person contact, and nothing is more important than those public-facing government service workers. They are the face of government on that person's worst day. We say that the pandemic is unprecedented, and we've heard it said a thousand times. But, although the queues were long, the feelings were similar to feelings during the bushfire crisis of last summer. I've spoken to local people who work in our Centrelink who volunteered to go and spend time in regional Victoria to support their neighbours and to support other people in Victoria as they sought support in recovery from the bushfires.

I know how tough government service employees find their job. When I think about the days I spent sitting with members of the public from my community when they had received debt notices from the infamous robodebt system, I know how difficult that was for staff in my office and for me personally to sit with people who had been traumatised by a process, who were looking for assistance, looking for guidance and looking for help on what they perceived to be the worst day of their lives. I think about the people who work in government services and the people who work in Centrelink, and I think about the stresses of their day. When we ask people to be the public face of a government, then the least a government can do is make sure that, when people are seeking support, that public face is the face of a government who cares about the population—is the face of a government who is there to support Australians on their worst day.

Unfortunately, that is not how a lot of government services employees feel, and it's not a surprise. Our government services should be crisis ready all the time. That's what we've learnt this year. That's what we learnt in the bushfire crisis. That's what I learnt in my office during the height of robodebt: they need to be in crisis capacity at all times. They always need to have well-trained staff. Those staff need to be permanent and need to be secure in their employment so they can give the best service to people who need support on the ground. It is a fact that this government has not had that front of mind. This government closed the Newport Centrelink this year. They've sacked workers at Services Australia's call centre. They've refused to lift the staffing cap during this pandemic. They come into the House and give us all the numbers of the people who've been supported, but how often do those opposite sit with those workers to find out the toll on them of doing the work and how much better supported they would they feel if, in being the face of this government, they felt supported and were in secure work?

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next day of sitting.