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 notes that:

(1) according to Services Australia's 2023-24 annual report:

(a) customer satisfaction was 79.1 out of 100, against a target of 85;

(b) only 55.2 per cent of customers were served within 15 minutes, against a target of 70 per cent;

(c) the percentage of work processed within timeliness standards was 71.8 per cent, against a target of 90 per cent; and

(d) only 58.5 per cent of Centrelink claims were processed within their respective timeliness standards;

(2) under the watch of the Minister for Government Services, Australia has recorded its worst result for digital government in over a decade, according to the latest E-Government Development Index; and

(3) the previous Government was doing a much better job of delivering a better customer service experience, with the 2023 OECD Digital Government Index, based on data for the period from January 2020 and October 2022, placing Australia in the top five best performing countries.

I am prompted to do this because, last week, the member for Maribyrnong, the Minister for Government Services, delivered a speech which he billed as containing a stocktake of his achievements in the government services portfolio. It turns out that the Minister for Government Services, when he comes to assess his own performance, gives himself a very high mark. He didn't put it in exactly these terms, but certainly when I was at Sydney university it went from pass to credit to distinction to high distinction. I think it's pretty clear that the Minister for Government Services regards himself as being worthy of a high distinction. He had this to say:

When I took over the portfolio it was obvious that staffing cuts—thousands of jobs being abolished—had left the Agency unable to meet customer expectations …

By the way, he was referring to those dreadful Liberals who had done this. He said further:

I fought very hard to get Services Australia properly resourced and was able to secure record funding in this year's Budget.

This is the basis on which it seems he would award himself very high marks.

But I think it's worth taking a look at the facts, because the facts are rather different to the revisionist construction which the minister has put on what occurred. If you look at what happened in the May 2023 budget, when the Minister for Government Services was on the job, the resourcing to Services Australia wasn't increased; it was reduced. It was reduced to $8.593 billion. The average staffing level was not increased but cut to $26,692.

We all know that the member for Maribyrnong likes to put the best possible construction on things, and you'd be naive to take what he said at face value. But I have to say, this is a particularly remarkable exercise in rewriting history. Because the simple fact is that, under the member for Maribyrnong, the performance of Services Australia has gone backwards. The reason is that the minister, the member for Maribyrnong, has been applying the wrong policy tools. In 2021-22, when 'those dreadful Liberals', to use his language, were in government, it took on average 35 days to process a claim for an age pension. For the period 1 January 2024 to 1 May 2024, the average time was 84 days. So processing time has gone from 35 days to 84 days; it has gone from reasonable to terrible. At the same time, we saw a change in the number of people sitting in the customer delivery group from 20,902 to 23,324. So the number of people in the customer delivery service group went up, and the actual quality of the customer service delivery went through the floor.

I've heard a range of excuses from the minister over the last couple of years. There has been an argument that we've seen an increase in customer demand. That's not true! Customer demand in 2021-22 was 126 million. Customer demand in 2023-24 was 92 million. It went from 126 million to 92 million, so demand dropped. The number of claims that were made in 2021–22 were 517 million, and in 2023-24 there were 468 million. Let's be clear, the number of claims dropped, and yet the processing time got worse. Under the coalition, Services Australia had a smaller headcount and more claims to deal with. It faced higher customer demand and delivered better outcomes. Under the member for Maribyrnong, the number of staff has blown out remarkably, and yet the service performance has gone through the floor.

What is the member for Maribyrnong's solution? It's to splurge yet more money. There is $1.8 billion now committed for an extra 7,500 public servants. We've seen the trend—more public servants mean services reducing. On that trend, if that continues, the 7,500 additional public servants will not make things better but worse. Frankly, the member for Maribyrnong has done a truly dismal job, and, critically, in trying to run Services Australia in the 21st century, he's been using discredited 19th-century approaches. He wants to throw more staff at the problem. What he needs to do, amongst other things, is do a much better job on the digital service delivery. Service New South Wales under the coalition government showed the way. This minister has not been listening. Australians deserve better. The member for Maribyrnong has given himself a very high mark. Most objective observers would disagree very strongly.

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

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.

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

I acknowledge that the member for Bradfield is raising his concerns on behalf of those in our communities who use Services Australia. But he has completely failed to acknowledge the dedication, commitment and hard work that our frontline Services Australia workers put in each and every day. This motion also highlights an underlying disrespect that many in the coalition have for public servants who are our frontline service workers.

Services Australia is home to some of the most dedicated and compassionate workers across our nation. After a decade of neglect, the Albanese Labor government is working hard to once again empower Australia's most vulnerable and give them access to the services they deserve. Under the Albanese government, we are reducing wait times, and we are investing $1.8 billion dollars into Services Australia. We are doing this because, under the coalition, vulnerable people were often waiting far too long, often anxious and frustrated, and for good reason.

The facts do speak for themselves. Between 2015 to 2022, the former coalition government ripped 3,800 frontline worker staff out of Services Australia and the department. This coincided with their cruel and illegal robodebt scheme. We know they were also planning to cut another 2,700 staff between 2021 and 2023. The now opposition wants to cut jobs and services even further, with 36,000 job cuts, around 20 per cent of the Public Service. What does this mean? Australians would be forced to wait longer for their pension, paid parental leave, childcare subsidies, Medicare and the processing of veterans claims, reversing the improvements Australians have seen as a result of our government's investments. In contrast, the coalition in government would continue to spend big on consultants, costing the taxpayer more in the end. The last time they did this it led to backlogs across Services Australia, veterans claims, visa processing and passport processing.

The Albanese government is taking a different approach. In the most recent budget, the Albanese government invested $1.8 billion into Services Australia to maintain a customer service workforce and to deliver timely services and payments to Australians who are doing it tough with the cost of living. This is really important work. To make this a reality, there will be an additional 4,030 staff next financial year and more than 3,500 extra staff in 2025-26. The additional staff will better position the agency to meet government and community expectations of timely service delivery.

This follows the investment in November 2023, when, in a record 10 weeks, 3,000 additional frontline staff were onboarded into the agency and trained to accelerate claims and processing times and improve access for customers. It was amazing, cutting the backlog of nearly a million Centrelink and Medicare claims to usual levels by mid-financial year, which helped to bring down call wait times and congestion messages towards the most recent financial year.

During the first quarter of 2024-25, the agency finalised almost 124 million claims, exceeding our target. Compared to this time last year, processing times have reduced by 32 days for aged-care claims, 16 days for the childcare subsidy, 24 days for disability support pension claims, 41 days for Medicare eligibility and enrolment, and 81 days for Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme patient refunds. This work changes lives. We know that reducing outstanding claims is helping to bring down call wait times as fewer people contact the agency regarding the process of their claim. We've also seen call wait times improve by more than 17 minutes for Medicare customers and 10 minutes for Centrelink customers. Additionally, most customers are being served within 15 minutes at 318 service centres across Australia.

It's clear that the Albanese government is investing in the right areas. We're backing in Services Australia; we're funding more staff for Services Australia, particularly in regional areas, and we're cutting wait times so that Australians can access the services they need and deserve.

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 important issue before the chamber by way of this motion.

Like any member of parliament here in the room, I obviously deal with a copious number of constituents that have issues accessing the government services they are duly entitled to. Certainly, matters regarding Services Australia are one of the higher volume categories of cases that come through my office, and I'm sure it's quite similar for most members.

The member for Bradfield outlined some very concerning statistics around the performance of processing claims within Services Australia, comparing the last year of our coalition government with the most recent year under the new Labor government. Unfortunately, all the numbers are going the wrong way. The staffing is up, the efficiency of processing is down and, of course, people aren't getting the support they are entitled to from their government, because they're waiting far too long.

In the recent budget, we saw a dramatic increase in the size of the Public Service; 36,000 more public servants are being employed under this government compared to the last year under the coalition. We are certainly not getting 36,000 people's worth of efficiency at Services Australia; that's for sure. It's really galling to people wanting the efficient delivery of government services, those that are waiting for their duly entitled claims to be processed and, frankly, any taxpayer that wants us to have an efficient system that gives people the support that they deserve, processes it in a timely matter and makes sure government can be as efficient as possible.

The new government are bragging about increasing the number of people being employed at Service Australia. I don't know if that's something to be proud of if the performance is commensurately deteriorating at the same time. As the member for Bradfield pointed out, while the size of the workforce has gone up by a couple of thousand, the efficiency in processing and the outcomes for people that matter, when it comes to engaging government resources, are going backwards; the people entitled to it are missing out. Something is really wrong when more people are achieving poorer outcomes in processing those claims.

The member for Bradfield is quite right that there are good ways and bad ways to increase the resources that go towards government service delivery, particularly at Services Australia. I agree with him in commending the former coalition government in New South Wales and the way in which they engaged in digital service delivery and created dramatic efficiencies across a number of government services through their digital government agenda. It's a model that is very worthy of reflecting upon, one that would be good for our Commonwealth government to look at in terms of ways of investing so that people have the best modern experience when it comes to their interaction with the government.

Now, we all deal with individual cases that can be quite complex with Services Australia, with immigration matters, with the NDIS et cetera. It's always very reasonable to respect and understand that there will be at times quite complex matters that need bespoke service delivery and might have a complexity that means that it's not that easy to quickly and rapidly process. But the vast majority should sit within an efficient framework and should indeed be achieving reduced wait times through the performance metrics, particularly as investment in the processing of the claims goes up. They shouldn't be going backwards, like they are right now.

That means that the policy decisions of this government are making are an absolute embarrassment of what they could be and should be achieving for some of the most vulnerable people in our society. So swallow the pride, admit you've got it wrong and look for opportunities to change course and see a focus on policy delivery in Services Australia that is actually going to deliver for some of the most vulnerable people in our society, because right now they're being let down by the performance of this government. They're the ones that need good government more than anyone at all. Instead, they're getting these terrible outcomes from Services Australia. We would like to see the government dramatically improve their performance in this amongst many other areas.

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

For those opposite and for this particular shadow minister, the member for Bradfield, to bring forward this motion is just absolutely unbelievable. To hear the former speaker, the member for Sturt, talking about Australians who are accessing Services Australia being let down by this government—it just beggars belief that these people would say things like that when they are the party of robodebt, the party of Centrelink closures, the party that took the human out of human services, the party that gave us great lines like 'lifters not leaners' and the disaster budget of 2014, which attempted to absolutely rip the guts out of our social security system. If a lot of those things had got through, it would have left people in such a dire state.

This is a party, those opposite, that do not value these things whatsoever. This is a party that has the temerity to come into this House and criticise the government for how Services Australia is run, when, since our election in 2022, what we have been trying to do is rebuild Services Australia into an organisation that is fit to actually deliver the services that Australians need. We have been doing that work, led by the minister, Bill Shorten, who came in after a decade of mismanagement by the coalition had left it in ruins.

The mover of this motion, the member for Bradfield, actually had to give evidence to a royal commission about the mismanagement of Human Services under his and his colleagues' watch. In her report, the commissioner relayed the human consequences of that neglect—families struggling to make ends meet receiving debt notices on Christmas, young people being driven to despair by demands for payments by private debt collectors and even the tragic suicide of Australians who had false Centrelink debts raised against them. This track record was known early. In 2017, people began raising the alarm. The response of those opposite was to double-down and go on the attack against people who complained. They cried with righteous indignation against what they saw as the undeserving ripping off taxpayers, but, as we know, these debts were not only incorrect; they were punitive. The ferocity with which the Liberal government went after vulnerable Australians serves as a lesson to never trust these people with a social security system, because, as I said, they do not believe in it, they do not recognise its value and they will only strive to cut it and to undermine the people that access it. What they did through robodebt was not only immoral and heartless; it was also illegal. That they want to come in here and criticise us with that track record is unbelievable.

As I said, our government has been rebuilding Services Australia and trying to restore trust with the Australians who access it. Make no mistake: if those opposite were to get back into government, they would undo all that work, because the fundamentals of their beliefs remain the same. We've just heard from the member for Sturt how terrible it is that we've actually increased staff, that we've actually employed more people at Services Australia to deliver those services. That's what these people think is a problem—more public servants delivering services to the public. They despise our social safety net and those who rely on it. Whether it's Medicare or social security payments, it doesn't matter—you can be sure that they're out to gut the services Australians hold dear.

What is our track record? Since coming to government, we have cleared the extensive backlog of claims. In this year's budget, we invested $1.8 billion into Services Australia. Last year, we employed 3,000 additional frontline staff to accelerate claims-processing times and improve access for customers. That's right. Unlike the member for Sturt, I'm proud that we've increased staff at Services Australia, that hardworking public servants are getting the resources they need to actually support people to access our social security system. In the first quarter of this year, Services Australia finalised almost 124 million claims, with over 90 per cent processed within standard timeframes, which exceeded our target. The average processing time for the age pension was reduced by 32 days. There was a reduction of 32 days. For the childcare subsidy it has been reduced by 16 days to an average of eight days. For the disability support pension, claims now take on average 24 days less than they did under the previous government. And I could go on because across a range of different payments we have cut processing times because we are rebuilding Services Australia, which they destroyed with 10 years— (Time expired)

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

I rise to speak on this motion brought by the member for Bradfield. I thank him for doing so. I note that he is absolutely committed to a better system of service for Services Australia. I was here for the tail end of the member for Canberra's speech. I have tremendous respect for the member for Canberra, but, with all due respect, I think she has failed to understand the nature of the motion that has been put by the member for Bradfield and also the supporting statement given by the member for Sturt. It is not the fact that we are objecting to the number of public servants that are now employed by Services Australia. We are saying, 'What are these public servants doing?' because, by their own admission, this Albanese Labor government has vastly increased the number of public servants in this place, by around 36,000, and yet this is what we see.

We are not seeing the service delivery for those public servants that have been employed. We have no objection to there being more public servants, but public servants are here to deliver services, at the end of the day. They're not here just to collect a wage, and they are largely unproductive. The very large increase in the number of public servants has of course led to inefficiencies and government waste, and the massive overspend by this government is still fuelling inflation and the cost-of-living crisis. I note that the member for Canberra has now left the chamber, but I say to the member: of course we know that public departments run on public servants. I was a public servant. I've got tremendous respect for public servants, but why is it that more and more public servants are being employed and the services are not being delivering?

As we have seen in Services Australia's last annual report—the 2023-24 report to which my friend the member for Bradfield refers in his motion—customer satisfaction scores 79 out of 100, against a target of 85. That's a failure. Only 55.2 per cent of customers were served within 15 minutes, against a target of 70 per cent. The percentage of work processed within timeliness standards was 71.8 per cent, against a target of 90 per cent. Finally, only 50.5 per cent of Centrelink claims were processed within their respective timeliness standards. This is the issue that is being raised by the member for Bradfield, and this is the issue that we are speaking about. Wherever these public servants might have been employed, they have not been employed at the coalface to actually deliver results. At the end of the day, that is what the Public Service is there to do.

I hear this every single day from my electorate. I hear from people who have been on the phone to Centrelink. They are frustrated. They're calling my office in tears. They can't get into their myGov app, for example, or they are people that cannot use technology for whatever reason—they may be vision impaired or they may be slightly intellectually disabled—and the phone remains unanswered. This is causing tremendous stress to people who, if they are accessing these levels of government services—

I hear the interjections. I'll be very interested to hear how on earth the honourable member proposes to defend this very damning report that has been handed down.

In my electorate, this is what they're telling me, and I would bet—almost my last dollar—that they are saying the same thing in your electorate. It's the same in Lyons. It's the same across the country.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You're saying these people should use the internet?

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

No. I'm not saying that people should use the internet; I am saying—

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! This is not the place for a conversation between two honourable members. Please direct your comments through the chair.

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

Deputy Speaker, in the interest of clarity, for those that have not understood what I think is a very simple proposition: there has been a great increase in the number of public servants that are working in this department, but there has not been the corresponding level of service delivery. People in my electorate say to me they can't use myGov and nobody answers the phone, and the figures in this survey bear this out. This government has failed on government services.

David Smith (Bean, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It beggars belief that the party of robodebt would trot out this nonsense. Customer experience indeed! This motion and the speeches in favour of it underscore the approach the Liberals have to the Australian Public Service and the people who work for critical organisations such as Services Australia.

The electorate of Bean, which includes Tuggeranong, the Molonglo Valley and parts of Woden in the ACT—which I have the honour to represent in this place—is home to thousands of the staff of Services Australia, the very people caught in the crosshairs of this motion. Services Australia employs over 4,300 people in the ACT, with several workplaces in the electorate of Bean, including the Reed Street offices, the Caroline Chisholm Centre and the Louisa Lawson Building. I know and talk to hundreds of Services Australia employees. I and all my Labor colleagues understand and value the contribution they are making to this nation every day.

This motion and the rhetoric surrounding it from the members opposite exhibits the negativity and contempt for the staff of this agency. In prosecuting this motion, the Liberals choose to cherry pick data and make out that Services Australia somehow collapsed after the Liberals left office. What nonsense! They choose to only cite data they believe makes the case that Services Australia and the people who work there are failing. The reason for this is that they want to take political points off this government and score cheap points at the expense of hard-working public servants. They ignore the reality of what is happening; they ignore the real figures that don't suit their political conspiracy, but thankfully my colleague the member for Canberra corrected the record.

All this beating up on the APS underscores one thing that we know to be true about Liberals. If the Liberals do ever get the chance to be in office again, they will rip into the APS and into Services Australia again, as they do every time they are in government. We know the consequences of that. This motion today is the entree. It sets the tone that would justify cuts and contracting out. If the Liberals get back into office, the nation would suffer again at the hands of a political party that, to its core, disrespects public servants and wants to talk them down at every turn. When they get into power, they always turn this attitude into cuts. I hope that as many residents as possible of Bean are listening to this debate. I'll certainly be bringing it to the attention of my community because it gives a real insight into what the Liberals think they will do if they get back into office. It will be bad news for Australia and bad news for the workers at Services Australia, many of whom live in my electorate of Bean.

In this debate, my colleagues have been addressing the many myths in this motion about service delivery at Services Australia, but, as the member for Bean, I'll focus on what the Liberals will do to jobs here in this nation's capital and right across the nation. The Liberals want to cut jobs and services in every state and territory while spending billions on more expensive consultants and contractors. We've seen this movie before. Under the Liberals' job cuts, Australians in need will be forced to wait longer for their pension, paid parental leave, childcare subsidies, Medicare and veterans claims to be processed, reversing the improvements Australians have seen as a result of Labor's investments.

The Liberals' use of consultants and contractors comes at a costly premium without offering the value for money that taxpayers expect. What does it lead to? It leads to robodebt and backlogs across Services Australia with veterans claims, visa processing and passport processing—all the issues that we have had to clean up in this term of government. In a nutshell, what does the Liberal Party want to do if it returns to government and what would it do to the actual job of government? They want to cut 36,000 jobs, which would work out to be around 20 per cent of the APS. What might that look like? It will probably look like 4,000 jobs in Services Australia, delaying payments with call wait times increasing. You'd be looking at a thousand jobs in DVA, leaving veterans without the support they deserve. You could be looking at 4,000 jobs across Defence, Home Affairs and the AFP, threatening Australia's national security, secure borders and the delivery of AUKUS.

What we're doing, instead, is working for Australians looking for employment, not against them as those opposite want to do with our Public Servants. If these plans are ever implemented, it would decimate both the services delivered and the employment opportunities in the electorate of Bean. I'll continue to work hard for those who turn up every day for the Public Service.

Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is an important motion, because, as we all know, when we talk about Services Australia, what we're actually talking about is the Australian people and those that need access to funds, whether it's the disability support pension, a low-income card or the age pension. These are Australia's most vulnerable who are needing support. I am sure every member in this house and many senators—I got an email today actually from a constituent who'd been trying to call Centrelink and hadn't been able to get through. They reached out to my office wanting support because they'd been unable to get the support they needed. Australians at their most vulnerable are looking to the government and looking for support.

Let's understand, as with many things with Albanese Labor government, what they said before the election versus the reality of today. Let's have a look at what the then opposition leader and the then shadow minister said. They said they would 'restore dignity, humanity and competence to the delivery of government services'. That's what they claimed two and a half years ago. We're now a good chunk into the Albanese Labor government, so we can look at some data and compare what they said they'd do with what they've done, and compare that to the former coalition government.

Let's look at something like disability support pension payments, which were taking an average of 40 days to process under the coalition. Under Labor, that has more than doubled to 93 days. Let's look at the age pension. Under the coalition, it was 35 days; now, under Labor, it's 76 days. Let's look at the low-income card. Under the coalition, there was a 16-day wait period; now, under Labor, it's 53 days. The average time to answer Centrelink calls, based on the department's own data, is over 30 minutes. You now have to wait 30 minutes to have your call answered—if you're lucky enough to have it answered—under this government. Compare that to the 14-minute wait under the coalition. That's why those opposite are so frustrated and needing to interject on previous speakers. They know that the statistics and the data from the department don't match the reality for the Australian people.

Let's look at customer satisfaction in the 2023-24 year. The target was 85 out of 100, and they hit 79.1. Customers served within 15 minutes: the target was 70 per cent; under this government it hit 55.2 per cent. Work processed within the timeliness standards—it's very important, as we know, that those that are most vulnerable get looked after in a timely way. The standard is 90 per cent; under this government, it's 71.8 per cent. And the official data confirms that only 58 per cent of Centrelink claims were processed within their respective timeliness standards, and that's including things like the age pension, the disability support pension and the low-income card.

This is why we are seeing the challenges that the Australian people are facing, whether it's the cost of living, where we have the Treasurer stand up day after day in question time and tell the Australian people that they've never had it better, when they're struggling more than ever; whether it is roads, where they're saying, 'We're investing billions in roads,' and every Victorian who drives on a road, particularly in a regional and rural road in my community and many other communities, knows there are potholes everywhere; or whether it's Services Australia, where the government promised to 'restore dignity, humanity and competence to the delivery of government services'—a nice line, but they haven't delivered on it, based on their own data in the Services Australia 2023-24 annual report.

That sums up the two and a half years of the Albanese Labor government. The Prime Minister, when he was opposition leader, promised the world to the Australian people. He promised that he could solve the challenges they faced, with the cost of living and with Services Australia. He made it sound so easy. The Prime Minister made many promises that he has not delivered on, and two and half years into the Albanese Labor government Australians know they're worse off. They know they'll be worse off into the future. They know that this is a prime minister who is weak and will not deliver for the Australian people.

Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think it's fairly telling that the previous speaker acknowledged the need to restore dignity and competence to Services Australia, which is a pretty damning indictment, I think, on the record of the decade before the Albanese Labor government was elected. Let's get something straight: we know that the previous government treated those accessing Services Australia services with absolute contempt. This was, after all, the government that presided over the abhorrent robodebt fiasco, which ruined people's lives. This was a government that absolutely gutted the public sector. So please forgive me if I greet this motion before the House today with some cynicism. I do not believe for a second that there is a genuine shred of concern for people who have had to access Services Australia. This is just another tactic being used by those opposite to attack the record of the government, rather than work together with the government to deal with the cost-of-living pressures that people are experiencing and make sure that people are not left behind.

Of course, we know that people are doing it tough. We've consistently acknowledged that and we're working hard every single day to improve the lives of Australians in every community across the country, including my own in Chisholm. Indeed, in the 2024-25 budget, our government invested $1.8 billion into Services Australia over three financial years to maintain a customer service workforce to deliver timely services and payments to Australians experiencing vulnerability in the midst of cost-of-living pressures, to sustain emergency response capability and to support other aspects of the agency's operations. We know that this investment is improving claim processing times and helping to decrease call wait times for customers.

This is really important, and it's not about numbers on a page. I know everyone's been quite focused on a lot of data in this conversation, but I think it's really important that we don't divorce the data from people's lives and experiences and that we acknowledge the real stress and distress that people experience when they're hoping to get in contact with Services Australia to support them through what is often a very difficult time in their lives.

It's because we understand those very real pressures and stress that people face that we have committed to putting on an additional 4,030 staff in the next financial year and 3,530 staff in the subsequent financial year. This is because we want people to be able to get the help that they need when they need it. This will help the agency to meet government and community expectations for timely service delivery. This follows investments from November last year, when, in a record 10 weeks, 3,000 additional frontline staff were progressively onboarded into the agency and trained to accelerate claim processing times and improve access for customers.

We know that the agency has now reduced claim volumes down to usual levels. We've reduced a backlog of nearly a million Centrelink and Medicare claims to usual levels. This helped to bring down call wait times and congestion messages towards the end of last year. We absolutely know that we need to do all we can to reduce processing times and to treat people with the respect and compassion they deserve. We know that reducing outstanding claims is helping to bring down call wait times, as fewer people will need to contact the agency regarding the progress of their claim. We know that we've seen improvements in terms of wait times for Medicare and Centrelink customers.

Our significant investment in staffing came at a really critical time, when Services Australia had fewer public servants per capita than ever before. We know the previous government ripped out thousands and thousands of frontline staff from Services Australia and its predecessor department. That was an absolute shame. We know that this coincided with the horrific, cruel and illegal robodebt scheme. Our work in government has been about focusing on improving the capacity of Services Australia and making sure that offices and staff are located in major cities across the country where people need to access them.

I am really disappointed that the opposition haven't worked more closely with our government to improve this situation. I hope they do in the future.

Bridget Archer (Bass, Liberal 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.