Transcript:
Ms PAYNE (Canberra) (17:49): For those opposite and for this particular shadow minister, the member for Bradfield, to bring forward this motion is just absolutely unbelievable. To hear the former speaker, the member for Sturt, talking about Australians who are accessing Services Australia being let down by this government—it just beggars belief that these people would say things like that when they are the party of robodebt, the party of Centrelink closures, the party that took the human out of human services, the party that gave us great lines like 'lifters not leaners' and the disaster budget of 2014, which attempted to absolutely rip the guts out of our social security system. If a lot of those things had got through, it would have left people in such a dire state.
This is a party, those opposite, that do not value these things whatsoever. This is a party that has the temerity to come into this House and criticise the government for how Services Australia is run, when, since our election in 2022, what we have been trying to do is rebuild Services Australia into an organisation that is fit to actually deliver the services that Australians need. We have been doing that work, led by the minister, Bill Shorten, who came in after a decade of mismanagement by the coalition had left it in ruins.
The mover of this motion, the member for Bradfield, actually had to give evidence to a royal commission about the mismanagement of Human Services under his and his colleagues' watch. In her report, the commissioner relayed the human consequences of that neglect—families struggling to make ends meet receiving debt notices on Christmas, young people being driven to despair by demands for payments by private debt collectors and even the tragic suicide of Australians who had false Centrelink debts raised against them. This track record was known early. In 2017, people began raising the alarm. The response of those opposite was to double-down and go on the attack against people who complained. They cried with righteous indignation against what they saw as the undeserving ripping off taxpayers, but, as we know, these debts were not only incorrect; they were punitive. The ferocity with which the Liberal government went after vulnerable Australians serves as a lesson to never trust these people with a social security system, because, as I said, they do not believe in it, they do not recognise its value and they will only strive to cut it and to undermine the people that access it. What they did through robodebt was not only immoral and heartless; it was also illegal. That they want to come in here and criticise us with that track record is unbelievable.
As I said, our government has been rebuilding Services Australia and trying to restore trust with the Australians who access it. Make no mistake: if those opposite were to get back into government, they would undo all that work, because the fundamentals of their beliefs remain the same. We've just heard from the member for Sturt how terrible it is that we've actually increased staff, that we've actually employed more people at Services Australia to deliver those services. That's what these people think is a problem—more public servants delivering services to the public. They despise our social safety net and those who rely on it. Whether it's Medicare or social security payments, it doesn't matter—you can be sure that they're out to gut the services Australians hold dear.
What is our track record? Since coming to government, we have cleared the extensive backlog of claims. In this year's budget, we invested $1.8 billion into Services Australia. Last year, we employed 3,000 additional frontline staff to accelerate claims-processing times and improve access for customers. That's right. Unlike the member for Sturt, I'm proud that we've increased staff at Services Australia, that hardworking public servants are getting the resources they need to actually support people to access our social security system. In the first quarter of this year, Services Australia finalised almost 124 million claims, with over 90 per cent processed within standard timeframes, which exceeded our target. The average processing time for the age pension was reduced by 32 days. There was a reduction of 32 days. For the childcare subsidy it has been reduced by 16 days to an average of eight days. For the disability support pension, claims now take on average 24 days less than they did under the previous government. And I could go on because across a range of different payments we have cut processing times because we are rebuilding Services Australia, which they destroyed with 10 years— (Time expired)
