BY LAUREN FREEMANTLE
Following the release of Centrelink's
annual report, Paterson MP Meryl Swanson is calling out the welfare system for increased phone wait times.
She says she's been inundated with calls from disgruntled constituents who are trying to navigate the increasingly web-dominated services.
Indeed, the Centrelink website reveals a continued "focus on improving the delivery of services, in particular, digital services," with more than 700 million digital, online and telephone self-service transactions recorded over the 2016-2017 period.
This figure contrasts the 52 million human-operated calls and 19 million in-person visits to Centrelink offices.
It's this "self-service" aspect of the system which Ms Swanson believes is failing to provide for the most vulnerable members of our community.
"We need to be able to provide services for people who are on the aged pension and suffer from disabilities...it's about providing proper service for those who need it."
She says Centrelink is under-resourced and under-staffed; in dire need of more permanent full-time staff who are qualified and familiar with the complex issues of Australians who require income support.
"It's one thing to say you want to be efficient, it's another to cut something back to the bone.
"We need to start looking for proper efficiency, whilst still providing these basic services people need...it's clearly gone beyond that when people are left on-hold for long periods."
