Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Prior to the debate being interrupted I made the point that when the government announced that the Centrelink office at Abbotsford would be closed, thanks to strong community pressure, the government backflipped on the decision to close the office. The government had announced the closure during the pandemic, at a time when people were very reliant on Centrelink for JobSeeker payments et cetera. This would have been a dangerous move for the community, who would have had to travel an additional seven kilometres to the next office. Another planned closure, at Mornington, was recently postponed until March next year. We think that the government has its priorities wrong. Why would the government close Centrelink offices at a time when the number of people needing income support has skyrocketed?

At the start of this month The Guardian reported that Australians visiting Centrelink offices waited 30 per cent longer, on average, in the past financial year compared to 2015-16. The analysis also revealed that people living in major cities waited about five minutes longer, on average, than in 2015-16, while those in regional centres waited about four minutes longer when seeking help. Wouldn't shutting Centrelink offices and call centres result in even longer wait times? We also need to recognise that not everybody can access services online. Face-to-face services are vital to helping people to get the services they need in our communities, including older people and people with low literacy and digital skills.

The danger of Centrelink staff being mostly casuals on contracts became very clear recently. Last month, Serco, a contractor for Centrelink call centres, announced that it would be cutting 420 Centrelink call centre staff from centres in Dandenong and Mill Park. These positions should not have been outsourced or casualised in the first place. These job losses clearly demonstrate the dangers of contracting for-profit providers to deliver essential government services.

Another problem identified by stakeholders, including Economic Justice Australia, is the limited number of Centrelink social workers. People often report they have to wait two or three days to access support from Centrelink social workers, which can be very critical timing for people who are desperately in need. There is a genuine need for Centrelink offices to have a social worker unit that is staffed at appropriate levels. We have also seen recent criticism of Services Australia in the way the agency has been implementing some new IT systems, as detailed in the recently released ANAO report. I will continue to follow up implementation of the commitments that Centrelink made in response to that report.

I hope that, as an executive agency, Services Australia can now learn from its mistakes and in future deliver strong social services to Australians who interact with our social safety net. Particularly as we move forward, addressing and coming out of the pandemic, people are going to need, and do need, a strong social safety net and a strong agency that is there for them—an agency that is not there to punish and demonise, or implement an agenda that demonises people on our income support system. We need an agency that is there for the people who need it and delivers the services and supports that are needed.