There are over 21,000 pensioners who live in the electorate of Paterson.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
There’s also over 6,000 recipients of Carers Allowance, 7,500 people who rely on the Disability Support Pension, nearly 12,000 recipients of Family Tax Benefits and 2,000 young people on youth allowance who are studying or undertaking apprenticeships.
That’s at least 50,000 people in Paterson who depend on Centrelink and the service it provides.
Yet every single week my office fields dozens of calls from people asking for help with Centrelink-related issues. Calls about extended wait times, lost documents, misinformation, complaints and errors - to name a few.
In the past three months alone, we have received countless calls in relation to Centrelink from 61 different people. And while some of these calls are a quick fix or about explaining processes, some of the stories can be truly heart breaking.
Just recently I heard from a woman who has faced the loss of her husband after a lifetime of marriage. She had applied for the disability support pension prior to his death and had been waiting more than six months for it to be processes. After dozens of calls and emails between my office and Centrelink, her pension was granted – on the day of her husband’s funeral.
I have little doubt that our local Centrelink centres do the very best they can. But the truth is Centrelink is in crisis under the Morrison Government. It's under-staffed and under-resourced, and the people who are entitled to the services Centrelink provides are paying the price. Cuts and neglect to our essential services mean that the horror stories we hear are all too common.
The Department of Human Service's latest annual report showed that satisfaction with Centrelink has dropped from 50 per cent in 2016-17 to 46.5 per cent last financial year. On top of this, complaints about Centrelink rose by 40 per cent - from 168,709 to 236,563 per year.
Centrelink is one of the most common touchpoints people have with the Government and figures like these prove what we already know – the quality of Centrelink services is deteriorating and we need to do something about it immediately.
Last year, Labor announced we would invest in 1200 new permanent and full-time Department of Human Services staff around the country to improve wait times and services. These jobs will include local service delivery and call centre roles that will provide support for people across Australia.
This week I was proud to welcome the Shadow Minister for Human Services, Ed Husic, to announce that 50 of those jobs will be right here in the electorate of Paterson, contributing up to $4 million to our local economy.
Medicare and Centrelink services help our community when they need it the most – when people are sick, processing aged care pensions, child care support, disability support pensions and carers allowance payments.
The 50,000 local people who rely on these services are relying on a Government that will get Centrelink back on track. These jobs are the first step in the right direction.