Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is an audit report, No. 37, Performance audit:Management of Smart Centres' Centrelink telephone services, under the Department of Human Services.

Before I go to the detail of the report, I want to place on record my thanks for the work that the retiring Auditor-General, Ian McPhee, has done for Australia and for good government in this country. Certainly, the office of Auditor-General is, I suppose, one of the most feared offices in the bureaucracy, because of the overview that the auditor does on the operation of the public service. I also congratulate Mr Grant Hehir on his appointment as the new Auditor-General. I think he will have many interesting times looking at various government audits moving forward.

This report indicates that the Smart Centres in Centrelink are some of the most complex and unique organisations in the country. The report indicates that Centrelink is like no other organisation and it draws attention to work that is done in the private sector in places like Qantas and in the public sector in the tax office. It says that the uniqueness and the technical complexity of Centrelink is nowhere repeated anywhere in the economy. I think that is why, when we had the audit report for the incoming coalition government, the audit actually indicated that people would have to be very careful of any arguments to privatise Centrelink. I am not supportive of any privatisation of Centrelink, but we do need to deal with some of the complex issues that Centrelink faces.

I am not of the view that we should be describing citizens who use Centrelink as 'customers'. They are not customers; they are citizens accessing their rights in this country. The issues that have been raised are that there is an average of 16-minute wait for telephone responses within Centrelink, and the average for abandonment of a call is about nine minutes and 42 seconds. So, people will wait for nine minutes and 42 seconds when what I would describe as the pain threshold kicks in and people abandon the call. There were 12.9 million calls abandoned according to the Auditor-General, and 13.7 million callers were blocked to try to manage the system. There are real problems in terms of dealing with citizens who access Centrelink in this country. These extended wait-times are a problem.

The Auditor-General recommends that Centrelink should change current measures such as performance indicators in this area. The report draws attention to the Australian Taxation Office where their key performance indicator is to have 80 per cent of calls answered within five minutes. That would be a significant performance improvement if we could fix the issue within Centrelink. The problem we have in Centrelink is that we are now relying on electronic forms of dealing with citizens. We puts apps in and we are asking more and more citizens to engage with the government through the electronic focus of apps and other electronic areas. We are hoping that that will reduce the call wait-time.

One of the interesting things I found was that the Auditor-General's report said that, overseas, simply relying on apps and other electronic forms of communication with citizens does not necessarily mean that you will have a reduced number of people wanting to engage either through the telephone, through the old handwritten postage system, or through face-to-face engagement. The international experience is that some of these apps and some of these electronic processes to deal with problems in areas like Centrelink actually mean more face-to-face requirements because people get confused in their use of some of the electronic areas. There are some demographics in this country who do not use electronic means at all such as many pensioners, many of the older communities, and many working-class communities where they cannot afford the latest smartphones. There is still a problem. The recommendations are that we have a strategy where citizens can access a range of channels to deal with their Centrelink related issues, that there should be a coordinated approach within Centrelink to deal with the issues, that we have proper quality assurance, and we review the key performance indicators.

There are a range of challenges that I will not go into tonight, but the response from Human Services is that they would accept a couple of the recommendations. They agree with the recommendation to improve coordination. They agree with the recommendation for quality call-listening processes. They have agreed, with qualification, on the issue to change the key performance indicator. I do not see what that qualification should be. I have asked the secretary of the department to indicate what these qualifications are and why the Department of Human Services cannot have similar performance indicators to other government departments and other private sector entities in terms of call wait-time. Call wait-time is driving citizens in this country mad when they have to deal with Centrelink inquiries. It creates problems for the frontline public servants. It creates problems for the people that are engaging and are totally frustrated. We cannot have millions of callers blocked. We cannot have millions of calls go unanswered because that is not quality service to the citizens of this country.

There is a proposal that the new computer system will answer all of the problems. Over time the new computer system, with the various channels that will be implemented through the computer system, will fix the call-wait time. Given the international experience I am not sure of that, and that is something that we will need to give some serious consideration to. What we will also need to do, I think, is ensure that citizens in Australia have access to a range of channels. If they want to choose to use face-to-face Centrelink business with their government, they should have that right. They should have the right to be able to have contact through written letters, the old snail mail, if that is what they want to do. If they want to use an app or electronic processes, that is fine. We should not kid ourselves that this new investment will solve all the problems.

I understand there are five tranches of investment being put forward by Human Services on this new computer system. The budget papers show that there is no commitment to anything other than the first tranche of payment to do some work, which will be about ensuring people are not rorting the system, and that is fine and I agree with that. There are another four tranches that we need money for. We need to know that the system will be modernised. We need to know that citizens in Australia will have access to the best technology and the best advice when they are dealing with Centrelink. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.