Private Members' Business - Services Australia

Mr FLETCHER (Bradfield—Manager of Opposition Business) (17:32): I move:

That this House notes that:

(1) according to Services Australia's 2023-24 annual report:

(a) customer satisfaction was 79.1 out of 100, against a target of 85;

(b) only 55.2 per cent of customers were served within 15 minutes, against a target of 70 per cent;

(c) the percentage of work processed within timeliness standards was 71.8 per cent, against a target of 90 per cent; and

(d) only 58.5 per cent of Centrelink claims were processed within their respective timeliness standards;

(2) under the watch of the Minister for Government Services, Australia has recorded its worst result for digital government in over a decade, according to the latest E-Government Development Index; and

(3) the previous Government was doing a much better job of delivering a better customer service experience, with the 2023 OECD Digital Government Index, based on data for the period from January 2020 and October 2022, placing Australia in the top five best performing countries.

I am prompted to do this because, last week, the member for Maribyrnong, the Minister for Government Services, delivered a speech which he billed as containing a stocktake of his achievements in the government services portfolio. It turns out that the Minister for Government Services, when he comes to assess his own performance, gives himself a very high mark. He didn't put it in exactly these terms, but certainly when I was at Sydney university it went from pass to credit to distinction to high distinction. I think it's pretty clear that the Minister for Government Services regards himself as being worthy of a high distinction. He had this to say:

"When I took over the portfolio it was obvious that staffing cuts—thousands of jobs being abolished—had left the Agency unable to meet customer expectations …"

By the way, he was referring to those dreadful Liberals who had done this. He said further:

I fought very hard to get Services Australia properly resourced and was able to secure record funding in this year's Budget.

This is the basis on which it seems he would award himself very high marks.

But I think it's worth taking a look at the facts, because the facts are rather different to the revisionist construction which the minister has put on what occurred. If you look at what happened in the May 2023 budget, when the Minister for Government Services was on the job, the resourcing to Services Australia wasn't increased; it was reduced. It was reduced to $8.593 billion. The average staffing level was not increased but cut to $26,692.

We all know that the member for Maribyrnong likes to put the best possible construction on things, and you'd be naive to take what he said at face value. But I have to say, this is a particularly remarkable exercise in rewriting history. Because the simple fact is that, under the member for Maribyrnong, the performance of Services Australia has gone backwards. The reason is that the minister, the member for Maribyrnong, has been applying the wrong policy tools. In 2021-22, when 'those dreadful Liberals', to use his language, were in government, it took on average 35 days to process a claim for an age pension. For the period 1 January 2024 to 1 May 2024, the average time was 84 days. So processing time has gone from 35 days to 84 days; it has gone from reasonable to terrible. At the same time, we saw a change in the number of people sitting in the customer delivery group from 20,902 to 23,324. So the number of people in the customer delivery service group went up, and the actual quality of the customer service delivery went through the floor. 

I've heard a range of excuses from the minister over the last couple of years. There has been an argument that we've seen an increase in customer demand. That's not true! Customer demand in 2021-22 was 126 million. Customer demand in 2023-24 was 92 million. It went from 126 million to 92 million, so demand dropped. The number of claims that were made in 2021–22 were 517 million, and in 2023-24 there were 468 million. Let's be clear, the number of claims dropped, and yet the processing time got worse. Under the coalition, Services Australia had a smaller headcount and more claims to deal with. It faced higher customer demand and delivered better outcomes. Under the member for Maribyrnong, the number of staff has blown out remarkably, and yet the service performance has gone through the floor. 

What is the member for Maribyrnong's solution? It's to splurge yet more money. There is $1.8 billion now committed for an extra 7,500 public servants. We've seen the trend—more public servants mean services reducing. On that trend, if that continues, the 7,500 additional public servants will not make things better but worse. Frankly, the member for Maribyrnong has done a truly dismal job, and, critically, in trying to run Services Australia in the 21st century, he's been using discredited 19th-century approaches. He wants to throw more staff at the problem. What he needs to do, amongst other things, is do a much better job on the digital service delivery. Service New South Wales under the coalition government showed the way. This minister has not been listening. Australians deserve better. The member for Maribyrnong has given himself a very high mark. Most objective observers would disagree very strongly.