Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Siewert for her question. I think when you have over eight million Australians with a myGov account, using their myGov account regularly to conduct their business with government—complete their tax returns, lodge their Medicare claims, register for the electronic health record and a number of other services—from over 10 member services that are available through myGov then that is actually a very good example of how the Australian government uses technology to help customers connect with the services that they need. Of course there are occasionally issues for customers with the use of this particular service, as there are with almost every online service I can think of in fact. I understand that there was recent media in relation to a maternity leave payments issue in particular between Centrelink and myGov itself. The Department of Human Services has certainly contacted the customer in the last couple of days to discuss that particular issue, and I am advised that that claim has since been processed—if that is the matter to which Senator Siewert is referring—and the customer is once again able to access her myGov account.

When customers are frustrated by these sorts of experiences, the department is asked to pursue an investigation and solution for the customers as a priority. That was the case previously and I am sure it continues to be the case. The government will, through human services, include a detailed analysis is of the customer contact logs in this particular case, or in similar instances if there are issues for other customers, and an assessment of when, for example, a complaint was received, how it was handled and those sorts of processes. I believe that the department has in fact initiated contact with the customer as well to fully understand her experience. (Time expired)