Minister must confront out of control Centrelink

14/12/11

The enormity of the task confronting new Human Services Minister Brendan O’Connor to get Centrelink back on track grows by the day, following further reports of misconduct by Centrelink staff.

Shadow Minister for Families, Housing and Human Services Kevin Andrews today described the agency as “out of control.”

“This week alone we’ve had reports of customers being effectively abused and offended by a taxpayer funded survey commissioned by Centrelink, we’ve seen that one third of all Centrelink rulings are being overturned on appeal, and we’ve had shocking reports exposing misconduct by Centrelink staff.”

Mr Andrews said the reports showed new Human Services Minister Brendan O’Connor would have his hands full trying to fix the mess left by his predecessor, Tanya Plibersek.

“Welfare fraud is rampant, the quality of service delivery is at an all-time low, and we’ve had damning reports from both the ANAO and Commonwealth Ombudsman exposing deficiencies in Centrelink’s review and appeals processes.”

“Simply put, Centrelink is in crisis,” Mr Andrews said.

Mr Andrews blamed the crisis on years of inaction by the Labor Government. “Tanya Plibersek and Chris Bowen were both do-nothing Human Services Ministers, and this is the mess they’ve left behind.”

Mr Andrews challenged Mr O’Connor to immediately confront the issues plaguing Centrelink. “If he wants to succeed in this role, his first order of business once he’s sworn in should be to stand up and announce what, if anything, he is going to do to get this agency under control,” Mr Andrews said.