Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes with concern that during a cost of living crisis:

(a) call-wait times at Services Australia remain unacceptably high; and

(b) processing times for key claims, such as the Age Pension and Disability Support Pension, continue to blow out;

(2) acknowledges that this is a result of the Government's:

(a) failure to embrace digital service delivery;

(b) inept mismanagement of Services Australia's workforce; and

(c) failure to commit to a top-to-bottom customer service mindset; and

(3) expresses its support for a root and branch review into Services Australia.

This is the third motion the opposition has moved in this parliament concerning the woeful state of Services Australia under the custody and stewardship of the member for Maribyrnong. I want to focus my remarks today on subclause (2)(a) of the motion, which goes to digital service delivery. Two recent decisions taken by the member for Maribyrnong are examples of the digital drift under this government. One of the reasons why call and claims-processing wait times at Services Australia have blown out is that Labor quietly paused automation processes some 12 months ago. We've learnt through Senate estimates that Services Australia, in their second Annual Performance Statement, blamed the pausing of automation processes as a key factor in the massive claims backlog. Secondly, Services Australia has opted not to participate in the trial of Microsoft's Copilot artificial intelligence tool, the pilot announced by the Prime Minister last year. It's mystifying that Services Australia, one of Commonwealth's largest public sector agencies, has chosen to sit out this important trial.

I raise these two decisions because they illustrate this Labor government's inherent mistrust of and lack of interest in digital transformation. With appropriate safeguards, automation and artificial intelligence can be important tools to help deliver better customer service. Look at what the coalition achieved in government: we implemented the Single Touch Payroll process, which is an example of automation. This allowed Australians who engage with both the Australian Taxation Office and Services Australia to use prefilled information to meet their reporting obligations efficiently. It also, therefore, allowed the government to increase payment accuracy, thereby helping to reduce instances of fraud and noncompliance. As evidence of the success of this initiative, between 1 July 2023 and 31 December 2023 more than 7.9 million Single Touch Payroll pay components, such as salary and wages, leave payments and allowances, were prefilled. This benefited citizens and allowed Services Australia to deliver better services.

When in government we also invested in the responsible use of artificial intelligence—again, to serve citizens better. As part of our $200 million investment in myGov, we rolled out digital assistance using Microsoft Cortana software. It's important to look at what the myGov user audit, commissioned by the member for Maribyrnong, had to say about the coalition's enhanced myGov investment: 'The Enhanced myGov program has shown what a well-crafted and -implemented development program can achieve.' Digital assistance comes in many forms, but in the case of Services Australia this meant that any citizen using the Services Australia website could ask questions of a bot and receive simple and straightforward information. As with any example of artificial intelligence, the Services Australia digital assistant learns more over time and can now handle increasingly complex questions about claims. Australians have embraced this functionality. In 2020 there was a 600 per cent surge in the use of digital assistance. One of the obvious benefits of digital assistance is that it allows customers to have their questions answered immediately, without having to call up Services Australia and wait. Certainly, when you do that under this government you have to wait a teeth-grindingly long period of time.

These kinds of tools—prefilled data and digital assistance using AI technologies—have been readily embraced in the private sector. Banks, telecommunications companies, large retailers and a whole range of other businesses are using these technologies to improve the service they offer to their customers. Services Australia really should be learning from the private sector, as, frankly, should the rest of government. In the work of improving services delivered by government, there is clearly a place for understanding and applying best-practice innovation from the private sector. The case studies I've given are evidence of the benefits that can be realised when you have a government that's ready to look at what's done in the private sector and adopt it. Unfortunately, the member for Maribyrnong has chosen to take a very different approach. He's pulled up the drawbridge; he's not interested in learning from innovation in the private sector. That's not the way to improve service delivery, and it means that Australians who are engaging with Services Australia are suffering and receiving poorer service.

Terry Young (Longman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is there a seconder for the motion?

James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Waste Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the member for Bradfield for moving this motion in relation to the cost of living and Services Australia. Let's start with some facts. Services Australia hosts a staggering 9.5 million customer contacts every week, helping Australians access critical services like Centrelink, child support, Medicare and much, much more. The government acknowledges the struggles faced by Australians accessing Services Australia, but let's not dance around the root cause of this issue. The member for Bradfield has, conveniently, departed—but the blame lies squarely at the feet of the former Liberal government of which the member Bradfield was a member, a part. It was a direct result of their slash-and-burn approach to our social services.

Instead of nurturing this institution, the former government—the member for Bradfield and his mates—chose to decimate it. Three thousand eight hundred hardworking Australians lost their jobs at Services Australia on the Liberal Party's watch. Why? The member for Bradfield talked about automation. Why? To make way for their malicious profit driven program, robodebt. Robodebt is perhaps the greatest failure of the Liberal government, and there are a lot to choose from. But that tells you everything. The scheme was so flawed, so callous, that it inflicted untold suffering upon countless vulnerable Australians. Families were plunged into false debt, individuals faced harassment and intimidation—all at the hands of a government that had long forgotten the meaning of 'empathy' and the meaning of 'responsibility'.

The former government said that robodebt was only going to affect a 'small cohort'. You know what their definition of a small cohort of Centrelink recipients was? That small cohort turned out to be 443,000 Australians. A significant number of these cases involved constituents in my electorate, and my office worked tirelessly to try to assist these people who found themselves targeted by this betrayal. At least 3,000 honest people in my electorate of Wills, people facing hardship, were victims of that Liberal government scheme. They had false debts under robodebt.

I'm just going to give you one example. A young man who was on youth allowance approached my office. He had received an incorrect demand notice for $12,377. For a young person, $12,000—he was absolutely shocked by it. He did not know what to do. It was just lucky that he spoke to his foster parents and said, 'What do I do about this?' and they said, 'Why don't you go to your local MP?' We intervened and we had that debt cancelled.

But that's just one case. More than half a million Australians were affected. It's impossible to quantify the kind of suffering that was inflicted upon them. The previous government made victims feel like criminals. Many people suicided, tragically.

So it is particularly galling to hear the party opposite suggest that there has been a failure to embrace digital service delivery. Of course we are committed to utilising data and digital technologies to improve our service delivery and decision-making. The Data and Digital Government Strategy, the final version released at the end of last year, clearly lays out that commitment, while consulting carefully with Australians to ensure everyone's experience with the government is inclusive, accessible and responsive to need. Given the $1.8 billion robodebt scheme relied on a hit-and-miss approach, backed by a single piece of internal legal advice based on a 'vibe', I think that careful consideration and consultation on the impact of digitisation is something worth embracing.

Now, we have taken some action. We've introduced 3,000 new recruits to work in regional centres across Australia, an important first step in replacing all those people who lost their jobs and an important first step in correcting the inept mismanagement of Services Australia's workforce by the previous government. These workers aren't just statistics; they represent a return of humans to government services and the return to a people centred approach. They're going to work in regional centres across Australia, they're going to help reduce call wait times and they're going to speed up claim processing. You're going to actually hear a human being on the other end.

There is a huge boost to funding which will support frontline staffing and operations at Services Australia, and it's the first step in getting us back on track. We have an unwavering commitment to restoring integrity and humanity to our social services, and we're taking tangible steps towards rebuilding Services Australia and putting people back at the centre of service delivery.

James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Waste Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bradfield for bringing this motion to the chamber and for the opportunity to talk about digital government and government efficiency. I think we all want taxpayer funding that goes into service delivery to be going directly to the coalface at every opportunity. Whilst we recognise there's a cost in administering programs, every dollar that is spent in these different departments—a percentage of it—is hopefully being maximised in terms of the purpose of those departments. In the case of Services Australia, we clearly want to see the budget of that department being used as directly as possible towards Australians that deserve and need the support that it provides. So taking any opportunity to improve and increase the efficiency of government and get the cost of administering programs down will mean that the savings can be put into direct support to Australians.

What the member for Bradfield is importantly highlighting here is that there are huge opportunities for government to create more significant efficiencies around digitisation, through embracing automation and artificial intelligence, and around ways to ensure that Australians who are waiting for decisions from government, particularly for decisions from Services Australia, are provided with support from government that they're appropriately and duly entitled to. When there are long waitlists and long backlogs for processing people's applications and claims, it brings about hardship on people, and, if they're duly entitled to something, the quicker the decision is made, the better. It's important because we're talking about very vulnerable people who are in limbo while they're waiting for these decisions to be made, and, if the decision is ultimately made that they're deserving of support, they have suffered beyond question because of these delays. It's a very straightforward concept, to embrace ways to reduce backlogs and reduce waiting times.

As the member for Bradfield pointed out, we now hear that projects around automation have been cut in Services Australia. These are projects that could lead to a dramatic reduction in the wait times for people to have claims and other issues assessed by the department. We know that last year the Prime Minister made a point about the opportunities through Microsoft and Copilot—their AI tool and capability—which is extremely exciting. Obviously we've all got a degree of apprehension and nervousness about artificial intelligence, but it's got enormous possibility. We want to gently engage its potential benefits and do it in a sensible and measured way, and we thought that the commitment the Prime Minister had announced last year with Microsoft may well have been a sensible way of doing that, but now we find that Services Australia won't be participating in that. I think that's very disappointing.

Investigating the application of AI to speed up some of the processes that are currently causing these backlogs and delays would be transformative for the human beings that are impacted by these delays. We have to be looking at ways in which we can make government more efficient, and the most important government efficiency for the average Australian is quick decision-making. That quick decision-making means that, when someone believes they've got a particular entitlement and they're applying for something from the government, the government gives them a decision on that as quickly as possible. That's the missed opportunity, with Services Australia turning their back on automation projects and artificial intelligence projects and not looking at ways in which decisions that are currently being delayed can be made more quickly.

We believe that this is going to be a growing part of government—a growing opportunity for government—and something that is going to deliver real and tangible outcomes and benefits to Australian citizens, because their interactions with government will be quicker, and that means they'll get decisions. And, hopefully, in the majority of cases, those decisions are to the benefit of the person seeking that decision to be made. While they're waiting for a decision and suffering through backlogs and delays, in many cases they're not getting the support that they deserve. This needs to change, and that's why I strongly urge the chamber to support this important motion that the member for Bradfield has brought to the chamber.

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Bradfield moved this motion, which talks about problems with Services Australia. This is an MP with the hide of a rhinoceros rather than the memory of an elephant! I was so surprised—so shocked, in fact—that he raised the matter here in the chamber, given the former coalition government 's track record with Services Australia and the fact that Labor is still dealing with the mess that his mob left behind!

And it is a huge mess, one that affects my constituents today. It's one that's affecting many Australians every day, especially with the increased cost-of-living pressures. The fact is that the former coalition government, that Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison progression of horrors, left Services Australia understaffed and undersupported for those who were employed. The coalition decreased the number of Services Australia staff by 3,800—3,800! That's 3,800 fewer people to answer the phones or deal with claims processing—more waiting, more delays and more frustration. The ratio of staff members to members of the public increased from one for every 700 to one to 1,000, while the Australian population grew. Not surprisingly, these measures led to lengthy delays in dealing with claims as well as increasing unhappiness with services amongst the public.

Australians actually have a right to access government services in a timely manner. We understand that people are frustrated when they face a delay, and we're working hard to get through the backlog of claims that we inherited. Services Australia, that is—Medicare, child support and Centrelink—is also managing changes in eligibility, leading to an increase in customers, seasonal peaks, surge activities and three current emergency activations. These services are provided via face-to-face, digital and telephony channels for millions of Australians. The average number of customer contacts per week is 9.5 million. That's why the Albanese government announced, for the first time in a decade, 3,000 extra staff for Services Australia in November 2023, spread across capital cities and regional centres. The core purpose of this staffing boost was to address those horrific call wait times and to speed up claim processing immediately.

We know there's still a job to do. Today, even with the 3,000 additional jobs, staffing levels are more than 3,000 fewer than they were a decade ago. Obviously, technology provides some opportunities for rationalisation, but during this time the Australian population actually grew by 17 per cent. Labor understands the urgency; this is the fastest recruitment process on such a scale ever undertaken by Services Australia. The Albanese Labor government's focus is on getting humans back into human services, especially important for those amongst us who are unable to use digital services. To these people I say that I understand your reticence, particularly during times of crisis like those in my electorate, where we had massive floods in 2011 and 2022. Unfortunately, the internet often goes out for almost an entire suburb at such times and access can become problematic.

For many Australians, the wounds from the previous coalition government's cruel, heartless robodebt policy are still raw. For 4½ years, the coalition perpetrated the absolutely disgraceful robodebt scheme, where unlawful debt notices were sent to nearly half a million Australians—Australians who had done nothing wrong. The debt notices were false—what a debacle! But, worse than that, for all affected it was highly stressful and traumatic and, for some families, it became a cruel tragedy. It also badly affected the dedicated Services Australia staff who were required to roll out this cruel system.

Let's keep in mind that these frontline staff already experience stress due to unacceptable levels of abuse. It's a fact that when Services Australia staff pick up the phone they're immediately dealing with someone who is highly stressed, has probably waited a long time and who has a problem that needs a solution. While this may help explain the aggression that Services Australia staff have to deal with, it doesn't ever excuse it. The 30,000 hardworking Services Australia employees who turn up every day to help their fellow Australians deserve better than that. And I agree with the Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme and Minister for Government Services when he describes his employees as 'highly motivated and wanting to make a difference'. I'm so glad that we've negotiated an updated enterprise agreement and that they've finally secured a long-overdue pay rise.

Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this motion and thank the member for Bradfield for again bringing this important matter about the performance of Services Australia to the attention of the House. In a cost-of-living crisis, more and more Australians are turning to Services Australia. However, unfortunately, while those working at Services Australia are doing the best that they can under the stewardship of the minister, Minister Shorten, the system is struggling and, in many cases, failing Australians.

I point particularly to the processing times for claims, such as claims for the age pension and the disability support pension. These processing times continue to blow out. I'm hearing it in my electorate and many on the other side are also hearing this in their electorates. Processing times for Centrelink payments aren't getting better. People applying for the low-income card are now waiting five times longer compared to two years ago. This is a direct result of bad decisions that have been made by the Albanese Labor government since taking office and, particularly, bad decisions made by the minister in charge. For example, the current government cut a major contract with specialist call-centre operator Serco in June 2023. This then resulted in some 600 call-centre jobs being cut. The only conclusion that can be drawn from 600 jobs being cut is that waiting times will blow out as fewer staff are available to perform the work needed by more.

For months the coalition has been calling for there to be a root-and-branch review of Services Australia's operations so that we can determine the agency's underlying problems and take steps to improve its performance. This is what the minister would be doing if he were serious about this problem. A review would put politics aside and put the needs of Australians first. Given the vast number of other reviews currently being undertaken by this government, it is very surprising that it does not want a review of the very important organisation that is Services Australia.

I was here in the chamber when the member for Moreton said that the Albanese government was very proud to announce it had recruited 3,000 extra staff. What the member for Moreton did not say is that this came on the back of one of this government's first acts when it came to power, which was cutting staffing by nearly 1,000 people. So we are still behind by at least 1,000 jobs. One thing the government has also not said much about is that the funding for these new staff runs out at the end of this financial year, and there does not seem to be any plan in place to replace those staff. In those circumstances, why isn't Services Australia doing more to use technology? Why hasn't it taken the lead of the former coalition government in New South Wales and properly digitised Services Australia? But, before we even get to that point, there must be a clear diagnosis of the cause of Services Australia problems. Only then can there be a road map to fix all of the problems.

I just want to draw attention to some of the new data that's just been revealed about how long Australians in different communities across our country are waiting for a range of vital Centrelink payments to be processed. For example, in my electorate of Hughes within the Sutherland shire local government area, Australians are now waiting 75 days on average to receive the age pension. I know this because my office is now receiving far more calls than it ever has in nearly two years about this delay. It's taking over 82 days for people in the Sutherland area to receive the low-income card. This is a very grim picture of a vital government service that is not coping during a cost-of-living crisis. So communities in every corner of Australia are being plagued by these payment delays. Australians need these payments fast. They need them efficiently. This is not occurring under Services Australia at the moment.

If we turn now to the processing times for the age pension, for example, in my electorate in the Sutherland local government area, it's now taking 78 days to process an age pension application. In the Liverpool local government area, it is taking 68 days. This is simply not good enough. In a cost-of-living crisis, people are necessarily turning to Services Australia. Services Australia under this government and under this minister is so far failing to deliver. Australians deserve better.

Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bradfield for introducing this motion today. It is good—surprising but good—to have the party of robodebt talk about the importance of Services Australia! The reason I say it is surprising is that it is very clear from the royal commission findings on robodebt that those opposite had absolutely no respect for the work of Services Australia.

If you read the royal commission's report, it is very clear that those opposite during their nine years in government put Services Australia in a terrible position, where it was in fact responsible for implementing an illegal program that targeted the poorest of the poor and sent people into spirals of depression. In some cases, it even contributed to people taking their own lives. If you read the royal commission report, it is clear that at times people in Services Australia—those working with people on the frontline—tried to raise the alarm about those opposite's cruel, illegal robodebt program. And they were ignored by the Liberal and National Parties when they were in government. I do say that it is surprising to have this motion brought forward by those opposite, given their track record, but perhaps it means that they do finally see that there is a benefit in resourcing Services Australia, in making sure that it is there to support everyone in our community and in it being supported as it should be.

Certainly, in contrast to the failures of the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison years, this government has been getting on with putting people back at the centre of government services—as it should be. In fewer than two years, our government has created thousands of new jobs to improve Centrelink and Medicare services. We are trying to ensure that, wherever people are accessing Services Australia, whether this is face to face, digital or over the phone, the people who are interacting with the agency through Centrelink, be it for child support, Medicare or other government services, are getting the support they need.

There is still work to be done. Services Australia is managing significant pressure, and, again, a lot of that is a legacy of how we saw the agency and government services for people who needed them most treated by those opposite during their nine years in government. To help address a number of these issues, in November last year, the Minister for Government Services announced a significant frontline staffing boost to Services Australia of 3,000 new recruits, 500 new staff into Medicare and 2,500 into Centrelink. The contrast is to those opposite, who during their time in government cut 3,800 staff, leaving fewer frontline people to do the work. The cohort of recruits our government is putting in is aimed at providing additional support as soon as possible to reduce call wait times and speed up claims processing.

We do know that those opposite have never seen a government service they liked. As I've outlined, over their nearly decade in office, they decimated Services Australia, making way for malicious, profit-making programs like robodebt, in which people were absolutely an afterthought. As I said, during their time in office, those opposite gutted 3,800 staff from Services Australia, so fewer people were on the frontline doing the work that we needed. Despite the significant investment that our government is making in recruiting 3,000 new staff to Services Australia, we do acknowledge that there is more to be done and that it takes time to build up from that decade of inaction and damage.

In that decade, we saw programs like robodebt. In my electorate of Jagajaga, there were as many as 1,862 people affected by robodebt. That's in one electorate. Think about the impact across the country. Read about the impact, through the royal commission, that that had on people's lives, on how government was run and on how Services Australia in particular was run. I highlight it shows that those opposite had absolutely no regard for this agency during their time in office. They had absolutely no regard for the very important face-to-face work that it does with people who need support and who are waiting for their aged pension. There was absolutely no regard from those opposite to the incredible stress that the illegal robodebt scheme put on so many of those people during those opposite's time in office.

I'll come back to where I started: it is good to hear the importance of Services Australia acknowledged from those opposite. It would have been better if they had acknowledged it during their time in government, but we can only hope for better from them in the future.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 12:19 to 12 : 28

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Anybody listening to the last contribution in this debate, the one by the member for Jagajaga, would think the coalition years were all bad and that we cared not for Services Australia. I want to be a little bipartisan—I do. For the Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme and Minister for Government Services, the member for Maribyrnong, I will give him one thing: at least he returns correspondence. His door is open, which is more than I can say for some of his ministerial colleagues, some of whom can't ever seem to sign a letter to another member of parliament, and that's disappointing. What's more concerning is the fact that they just don't seem to take meetings, whether with another member of parliament or, perhaps even more worryingly, with stakeholders.

This is about the cost of living, this is about Services Australia, this is about delivery and this is about people. At the core of this debate, it is about people. All politics is local. When I look at my Riverina and Central West communities, they are not getting the delivery, when it comes to Services Australia. I do not blame the staff. They are hardworking, they are stretched and they under pressure. Just take some of the benefits that are distributed and the waiting times that are occurring in my Riverina electorate. For the family tax benefit, every local government area—I represent 12 local government areas, or 13 if you take into account the fact Cootamundra and Gundagai are soon going to be demerged—is outside the 80 per cent claims process benchmark of 31 days. That ranges from 8.2 days in the Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council's case to 29.2 days in Coolamon shire. For parenting payment partnered, every LGA is outside 80 per cent of the 28-day benchmark, ranging from 16.3 days in Cowra to 45½ days overdue in Weddin. Weddin is centred on Grenfell. Regarding the age pension, Lockhart is the only LGA which receives the age pension in the 80 per cent in 49 days parameter. Every other one of the LGAs that I represent is overdue. For JobSeeker, Cowra is the only LGA to process JobSeeker payments in the 80 per cent in 16 days time frame. The other LGAs range from two days to 14.4 days overdue.

You might say, 'It's just a fortnight, from a minimum of two days,' but it's people's money. It's people's lives, and in a cost-of-living crisis they need every dollar that is due to them, when it is due to them.

With regard to the seniors health card, Weddin is the only LGA to receive those payments within the time frame allotted. For paid parental leave, three LGAs are within the 21-day parameter for that particular payment, and the rest are overdue by up to five days. Other benefits, including Austudy, carer allowance, carer payment, disability support pension and youth allowance, are a mixture of being within and outside the parameters, but none of them should be outside the parameters. I hear the Labor members say in their contributions that they've put more staff on. Labor took office saying that they would do better, and they have not. They have failed. They are failing to deliver.

For the carer payment, if you live in Bland shire—that's based on West Wyalong—you're waiting 49.3 days over the time frame that should be the norm. It's just too much. It's people's lives we're dealing with. With reference to the disability support pension, if you live in Coolamon shire you're waiting for 41 days over the allotted time frame. It's simply not good enough.

Youth unemployment is now running at 9.3 per cent, which is higher than when we left office, and real disposable incomes have collapsed by 7½ per cent per capita since Labor came to power. When you take just those two figures alone—real wages and real disposable income—as well as youth unemployment and everything else that's exacerbating the cost-of-living crisis, the message should be clear to Labor: start delivering; start doing what you said you were going to do.

Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to be able to speak on this private member's motion from the member for Bradfield on the topic of the cost of living and Services Australia. There's always a sense of irony when those opposite come to this place to talk about Services Australia—which they absolutely gutted over their 10 years in office—and the cost of living.

Since this government has been in office, it has supported higher wages, particularly for aged-care workers. We've promoted energy bill relief. We've brought in cheaper medicines. We've brought in cheaper child care. The member for Bradfield voted against all of that—all of those cost-of-living measures. Of course, we've just put through tax cuts for every Australian taxpayer, which those opposite, including the member for Bradfield, talk about as being Marxist and say would be on the chopping block, before, of course, voting for the measure but leaving open that window whereby, if they were to ever get back in government, those tax cuts for more working Australians would also be on the block.

I'm sure that the member for Bradfield and members of the opposition would be happy to listen to how the Albanese Labor government is simply trying to fix a service that had been left to rot and fester for 10 years under his watch and the watch of other former coalition ministers. All members of this place, hopefully, know the vital role that Services Australia plays in the everyday lives of all Australians who need it. I was pleased to hear the member for Riverina's contribution, where he paid tribute to the hardworking staff of Services Australia. I say to the member for Riverina: where were you when you were in government? How were you supporting the staff of Services Australia when they were being belittled and derided by those opposite, when jobs were being casualised and contracted out and more than 3,000 staff were being let go? Where were those opposite for Services Australia then?

Life can throw us all curve balls. That means people need to rely on Services Australia for financial help or to access government services. We know from contact with our constituents on a weekly basis that Services Australia is a real lifeline. It hosts 9.5 million customer contacts every week and is currently managing significant pressure on the service delivery network. High volumes of work on hand and longer than desired call wait times are due to several factors, including changes in eligibility leading to an increase in eligible customers, seasonal peaks, surge activities and three current emergency activations.

On this side of the House, we know how important it is for this service to work at its best. Our Services Australia workforce is our front line help for the most vulnerable people in our community. It's a challenging and highly rewarding role, but, for over 10 years of failed Liberal government, more than 3,000 Services Australia staff were lost. The former Liberal government gutted 3,800 staff from Services Australia, resulting in the agency having fewer frontline public servants, despite a population increase in Australia of 17 per cent over the same period. Just think about that—3,800 fewer staff with a 17 per cent population increase. It's no wonder it's under such stress. We acknowledge the stress, and we're doing something about it.

Of course, those opposite also presided over robodebt. Services Australia's reputation was trashed by those opposite with that illegal Liberal robodebt. As many as 11,000 people in my home state and, indeed, in your home state, Deputy Speaker Payne, and 2,500 in my electorate were illegally targeted and made to feel like criminals simply for having accessed income support at one stage in their lives. It is rank hypocrisy from the member for Bradfield and those opposite. It certainly is from the member for Bradfield, who had a fleeting tenure in 2018-19 for nine months as Minister for Family and Social Services, to come into this place now and profess some sort of care about Services Australia. The member for Bradfield oversaw the dying embers of robodebt. He ignored calls for it to be scrapped, prolonging the pain of tens of thousands of innocent Australians.

Before I finish, I want to say as the member for Lyons how proud I am that one of my election commitments in 2022 was for the delivery of a new Services Australia centre to be built in Sorell in my electorate. That plan is on track. It's before the council. I think the council has now approved it. The shovel will be going into the ground soon. That's going to create local jobs, but, more importantly, it's going to create a local service for people in the south-east of my electorate to be able to get to Services Australia.

Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.