Celia Hammond (Curtin, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to rise in support of the Services Australia Governance Amendment Bill 2020. The bill makes technical and administrative changes to legislation as a result of Services Australia having been established as an executive agency under the Public Service Act 1999 on 1 February this year. In particular, it makes direct textual amendments to legislation so that acts correctly refer to Services Australia or the Department of Social Services. It amends various secrecy provisions so that information that was held by the Services Australia or the department of human services as a department of state can continue to be protected by those secrecy provisions. It amends the Human Services (Centrelink) Act 1997 to protect the name Services Australia from unauthorised use.

The legislation is necessary to ensure clear and correct references to Services Australia or the Department of Social Services and to support decision-making by those agencies under legislation. It also seeks to ensure that the name Services Australia cannot be used inappropriately—for example, by a business seeking to imply a connection with the Australian government. It will operate retrospectively from 1 February 2020.

While the bill is technical and administrative in nature and not one that will set the world on fire—nor should it cause any concern—it does relate to one of the Public Service agencies that has an impact on the lives of many Australians, sometimes whether they are aware of it or not. Services Australia is responsible for the delivery of advice and high-quality, accessible social, health and child support services and payments. It does this through Medicare, through programs such as the PBS, the Australian Immunisation Register and the Australian Organ Donor Register. It does this through Centrelink. It delivers payments and services and provides services at times of major change for all the following groups of people: seniors, jobseekers, students and trainees, families, carers, parents, people with disabilities, Indigenous Australians, and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. It also oversees child support and gives separated parents the financial and emotional support needed for their children's wellbeing.

The significant work and reach undertaken by Services Australia in normal times can be demonstrated through the following figures from 2018-19. In that period Social Services oversaw payments totalling $184 billion, more than $3.5 million social security and welfare claims, more than 429 million Medicare services, more than 63,500 aged-care claims and around 980 million interactions with individual Australians. While these are significant in and of themselves, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic the pressure and work of Services Australia has increased dramatically. Services Australia has been at the forefront of the Australian government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, providing support to millions of Australians. And in a rapidly evolving environment the like of which we have not seen in our lifetimes, Services Australia has worked closely with policy agencies to streamline processes to ensure that people who have been impacted by the pandemic receive vital support as quickly and as easily as possible.

Services Australia centres have remained open throughout the pandemic but, to assist with the health response, Services Australia has been asking only the most vulnerable in the community to visit and has been encouraging everybody else to use the online and call service options. In order to meet the surge in demand for online and call services, Services Australia had to quickly upgrade these services and employ and train additional people to work in the call centres and payment processing. It's important to note the outcome of this work that they did. The majority of social security and welfare claims have been processed in eight days—nearly 20 days faster than last year. And calls have been answered during the COVID pandemic about 15 minutes faster than last year—and the myGov website now has the largest capacity of any authenticated online platform in Australia.

This system remains stable despite averaging up to 837,000 sign-ins daily during the peak month of June, compared with an average of 575,000 in June 2019. Since March of this year Services Australia has delivered more than $21.2 billion in additional payments and processed more than 1.7 million JobSeeker claims, providing income support to people in need. In fact, in the space of 55 days Services Australia processed 1.3 million JobSeeker claims. That's the number they would normally process in 2½ years. At the peak, they completed more than 53,000 claims in a single day. More than $12.4 billion in the coronavirus supplement has now been paid through Services Australia to new and existing eligible income support recipients in addition to their usual payment. More than $9 billion has been paid to seven million Australians on lower incomes, including pensioners, other social security and veteran income support recipients, and eligible concession card holders. Some $14.9 million in pandemic leave disaster payments has gone to almost 10,000 people who work in Victoria, Tasmania, Western Australia and New South Wales. They have been directed to self-isolate but don't have sick leave payments through JobSeeker or JobKeeper.

While this amendment is technical and dry, the work of Services Australia is not. I would like to commend the minister for his stewardship and leadership. I would like to commend the CEO and all those who work at Services Australia for what they have managed to achieve over the last six months. They have delivered in an environment that has been and continues to be incredibly challenging for everyone.

See this speech in context