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

Australians are living through a cost-of-living crisis, and many need to seek help from Services Australia. But for too many, this has been a very bad experience. On the most recent published numbers, it takes Services Australia 82½ days to process a low income card claim, compared to 16 days when the coalition left office. If you call Services Australia you better be patient. Those who call the disability, sickness and carers line wait, on average, more than 48 minutes. The figure was 21 minutes under the coalition. Labor's solution is to hire an extra 7,500 bureaucrats. They've already increased headcount while in government, while service levels have dropped.

While Labor is hiring more staff it is letting the digital capabilities of Services Australia stagnate. Ninety per cent of all customer interactions with Services Australia are through the digital channel, but funding over the forward estimates for Services Australia's technology and transformation program will decline. Automation processes for key Centrelink payments have been turned off, the guts have been ripped out of the agency's digital program suite, more than a thousand specialist ICT workers have been let go and an axed contract with Serco has reduced the telephony capacity of the agency.

The Albanese government has got the wrong priorities for Services Australia, and those Australians who rely on it are paying the price.