Bill Shorten's staffing splurge won't fix slumping service levels at Services Australia
THE HON PAUL FLETCHER MP
Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy
Shadow Minister for Science and the Arts
Manager of Opposition Business in the House
The Albanese Labor Government is taking Services Australia back to the twentieth century, pumping in more Canberra bureaucrats while letting its digital capabilities languish.
Over three financial years, Labor will spend over $1.8 billion on more than 7,500 additional public service positions to address Bill Shorten’s self-made claims backlog.
Services Australia certainly needs to improve its service levels, which have plummeted under Bill Shorten as Minister.
On the most recent published numbers (December 2023), it takes Services Australia 82.5 days to process a Low Income Card claim, compared to 16 days when the Coalition left office.
Under the Coalition, in 2021-22 Services Australia was allocated an average staffing level of 26,838; under Labor as at February 2024 in 2023-24, the average staffing level was 28,570. With increased staff numbers service levels got much worse.
A key driver of worsening service levels is that the digital capability of Services Australia has been left to stagnate under Labor. This week’s Budget continues the stagnation.
Funding over the Forward Estimates for Services Australia’s Technology and Transformation Program will decline.
Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy Paul Fletcher said Labor’s Budget guarantees more jobs for Canberra but less customer service.
“Unsurprisingly, the Community and Public Sector Union has said they are ‘pleased’ with this taxpayer-funded bonanza,” Mr Fletcher said.
“Service standards are plummeting under Labor because of Bill Shorten’s bad decisions and wrong priorities.
“Automation processes for key Centrelink payments have been turned off, the guts have been ripped out of the agency’s digital program suite, more than 1000 specialist ICT workers have been let go, and an axed contract with Serco has reduced the telephony capacity of the agency.
“Labor’s myGov spend is nothing more than keeping this important platform on life-support.
“With no roadmap to accompany this announcement, as the myGov User Audit recommended, it is unclear when the new features will come online.
“Mr Shorten has form of promising big and delivering little when it comes to myGov.
“For example, in February 2023, Mr Shorten promised that the Commonwealth’s digital Medicare Card would be available by mid-2023 within the Service NSW app. Now in May 2024, New South Wales residents are still waiting for this feature to show up.
“Around 90 per cent of Services Australia’s customers choose to interact with the agency via digital means, but Labor’s old-school plan is to simply install more frontline Canberra-based bureaucrats.
“The seamless, simple and safe delivery of government payments and services hinges on the effectiveness of underlying technology platforms, informed by robust assurance frameworks and lessons learned from best-practice innovation.
“By failing to consistently transform and uplift Services Australia’s core ICT systems, Labor risks turning the current myGov platform into an empty shell, further exacerbating the agency’s legacy tech debt.”
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