House debates

Tuesday, 18 October 2016

Matters of Public Importance

Centrelink

3:50 pm

Photo of Ken O'DowdKen O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

When you are finished I will continue. For too long, government services have not kept pace. There is $1.9 billion in fraud and overpayments. That is $1.9 billion that we will never receive back. Under Labor, waiting times went from three minutes out to 11 minutes; they ballooned out under your control. It takes time to fix these things. Labor also ripped out 1,100 telephone staff—and therein lies another problem.

Opposition members interjecting

Well, you put them off. You cannot lecture us on putting staff; you put off 1,100. I recall how efficient you were in the 2011 floods! There was a major flood in my area, especially the Burnett River. Bundaberg went under and I was further upstream at Mundubbera. Nicola Roxon was the Attorney-General. We were trying to work out at the time whether we had a category A, B, C or D—

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