Centrelink customers frustrated with long phone waiting times will soon see a “very significant” improvement, the Federal Government has promised, after announcing an extra 1,500 call centre staff.
The Federal Government has funded nearly 3,000 contractors at the Department of Human Services in the past year, instead of employing public servants to fill the roles.
Human Services Minister Michael Keenan insisted Centrelink clients would not be worried about external providers answering the phone.
“I don’t think that the people using our services are that concerned about where the people are coming from who assist them, I think they just want the assistance,” he said.
“So this is the quickest and easiest way that we can get people on board to improve the service.”
In the May budget, the Coalition allocated $50 million to reduce Centrelink waiting times.
Mr Keenan said the new allocation of jobs would ensure customers saw a “very significant improvement in service”.
“I don’t want to put a KPI around it, but people will notice and are hopefully already noticing that when they call the Government they’re getting a much better service than they have in the past,” Mr Keenan said.
He said the first 250 call centre staff that were added to the service last year had reduced busy signals for people contacting Centrelink by 20 per cent.
Labor wants permanent, full-time staff for Centrelink
When the Serco contract for those staff was announced, Labor and the unions questioned why the Government would trust a private company with personal information, but the Minister dismissed those concerns.
He said at the time that no client data would be sent overseas, and reiterated today that all of the new call centre staff would be based in Australia.
Labor argued again today that the public service was being subject to further privatisation and Shadow Human Services Minister Linda Burney said Centrelink needed permanent, full-time staff.
“It’s an absolute joke, the Government has cut 2,500 jobs out of Centrelink over the last two budgets and the notion that they’re putting these jobs back is a net zero gain really,” Ms Burney said.
“We want a good, strong public service and there should be permanent jobs, well-trained people in those positions, outsourcing will achieve nothing.”
Ms Burney disagreed with Mr Keenan’s assertion that customers did not mind whether contract or full-time staff answered Centrelink calls.
“I think the public do care because it’s the public that’s trying to access services which are sub-standard because of the outsourcing and contractual arrangements,” she said. ABC
