Bill Shorten clashes with Chris O'Keefe over Service Australia wait time claims 11:19

Now, I got a press release this morning from Bill Shorten's office. And it was curious to me, because the headline said this: "Services Australia slashes claims and wait times." Now, is this true? 131873. Because when you've been on the phone to Services Australia, have you had your claims sorted? And have you had your on-hold wait times slashed? Like Minister says you have. Because we've been on this for the last couple of weeks.

And the most recent data that we were provided by the opposition back in June showed that it took 400% longer for prescription shopping claims to be processed by Services Australia under the Albanese Labor government than it did the coalition government. And it's up from nine days in 2021, 2022 to four days, 45 days, sorry, on the most recent figures. So from nine days to 45 days.

Aged care claims, the wait time blowout was 345%. Medicare eligibility claims, 242% longer. You're waiting. PBS patient refunds, 215% longer. Services Australia were also sitting on more than 232,000 claims that were yet to be processed after more than 90 days. So they weren't even in the system yet.

And it didn't end there. Almost 601,000 Australians who tried calling Centrelink between January 1 and May 1 this year, January 1 and May 1, 601,000 Australians, they were on hold for longer than an hour. Now, Minister Shorten, he reckons that it's all been fixed or maybe not fixed, but certainly it's on the turnaround. He's on the line for us. Minister, g'day.

Hey, g'day, Chris. You reckon it's on the turnaround? You reckon it's on the improve? What proof have you got? Oh, just the numbers, mate. Listen, I am sure, let me say this at the outset to your listeners, there's still a lot of problems, okay? I ain't saying we reached utopia at all or nirvana. But on behalf of the thousands of extra staff that we've put into Service Australia, they're doing a very good job.

Listen, I hear you're reading out the opposition propaganda and they, of course, picked the COVID benchmark. And during COVID, we even solved homelessness. There was no one homeless. But I think what a lot of people thought, including the previous government, was that things would go back to, I don't know, pre-COVID, but it hasn't. What we've done is put in thousands of extra humans back into human services.

And the reality is that my crew are doing a good job and nothing's perfect. And I want to see some further improvements. But on the other hand, when the news is good, yeah, I'm going to run it up the flagpole and say that, yep, we are doing better than we were doing. 601,000 Australians kept on hold for longer than 60 minutes. I've had my own experience, Minister. When I ring, they say, hey, look, we're too busy. And it just hangs up on me.

Mm-hmm. The congestion rates, though, and I'm sorry that you had that experience. It's not just me. But I'll tell you what. Well, no, no, but you raised yourself, so I'm saying sorry to you. And that's just a human thing to do. I appreciate it. It's an arrogant thing to do. No, I know that. Thank you. But the reality is congestion rates are decreasing.

The truth of the matter is that for too long we've used human services, delivering government services to people as something that can simply be all put online or replaced by some new marvellous software. That's not the truth. I was able to convince my colleagues in the Cabinet to give me thousands of extra people because if you want a call answered or if you want a payment process, you still need a human. And what we're seeing are some improvements. Here's Peter on the text line, Minister.

Hey, Chris, I've been attempting for 10 days to get onto Services NSW. I just tried again and they hung up on me. That's Peter. Well, Services NSW, as you well know, Chris, is the NSW government. No, Services Australia, sorry. Oh, okay. Well, do you know what? Let's get his details and we'll sort it out, mate. Okay. I'm not saying everything's... Chris, you've got to be careful here. Well, you don't have to be careful at all. You've got the microphone. But...

I'm not saying everything's right, but the trend is our friend. And I know that the average waiting time on a Medicare payments call is down by nine minutes because we measure it. I know the average waiting time on a social welfare call is down six minutes. I know that at the beginning of the year, we had 1.35 million outstanding claims. And because of the hard work of the crew we've hired, it's down to 450,000 claims waiting. This is facts. Yeah, sure. But why do you hang up on people?

It's very rude. Sure. I don't like it either. I'll tell you the problem. We get nearly 60 million phone calls. Basically...

If I had more public servants, then we'd never hang up on anyone. So there's a trade-off. What I managed to do was put on 3,000 extra people. That's why there's less congestion, less hang-up, and there is less waiting time. Did you know under my predecessors, they used to dodge you the numbers up? They wouldn't count the hang-ups. So all you ever averaged was...

people who got their calls answered eventually. But why don't when I ring Telstra or whoever it is and they say, look, we're really, really busy at the moment. Do you want to call back? Press three and we'll ring you back when we've got someone. Why can't we do that with Services Australia? We offer quite a lot of that. I've never heard it.

Here's Candice. Candice, can never get through when calling, just get hung up on. Here's Diane. How can my husband speak to a customer service officer? Keeps ringing, but just keep getting hung up on. It's very rude, Bill. Mate, when the individuals don't get the service they want, they're right to be annoyed. But what I'm also telling you, if happy people don't ring your show...

These are Facebook comments on your ministerial page. But I'm just saying, it just seems ridiculous to me that we've got a situation where we go, hey, guys, we're really, really busy. Try again later. Beep, beep, beep. But, you know, surely we could do better than that.

We are doing better than we were. But you know what's ridiculous? When the opposition and conservative commentators say we have too many public servants, if you want a human to answer the phone, then we've got to pay for someone. That's what we've done. We've invested $2 billion. We've now got... We've hired 3,000 extra bodies to do the work, and they're doing the work. And, yeah, I think I started the interview by saying, I don't think we're anywhere where we need to be, but we're a lot better than where we were.

What is Utopia for you? I don't know. I've never been there. But I think when we can answer calls more quickly and when we can process payments accurately and in a timely fashion. What's accurately and timely? What's the benchmark? There are benchmarks. Benchmarks.

Listen, I don't have a particular benchmark I'm going to reel off here because I want to go back and check that. But I do know that in 2018, 2019, you were waiting 75 days to sort out your age pension. Now it's down to 60. I'd like to reduce that. To what? To a lot quicker. What's your KPI then?

Yeah, I said I don't have every individual KPI here with me. But take care allowance. In 2018-2019, before COVID, people were waiting 59 days to get their care allowance. Now it's 13 days. When you were seeking your family tax benefit lump sum in 2018-2019, you were waiting 22 days. Now you're waiting three days. Yeah, I mean, here's a couple of numbers. Medicare.

When you put in a Medicare online account claim, we've got it from 11 days down to two days. Paid parental leave, it's 25 days down to four days. Listen, I know Good News doesn't sell media headlines, and I believe every one of your callers and the Facebook people you're saying could well be absolutely having a really frustrating experience. I get frustrated too.

But my point is that we now have 5.1 million people in the MyGov app. My point is we've now reversed the trend of cutting frontline services and put people back in to do the good job. We have three... We've stopped closing Centrelink offices. We said we'd do 318 when we came in. We're going to keep 318 Service Australia offices. I've now got 28 people working out in frontline homeless organisations and rolling people.

The story's not great, but I'll tell you what, the trend is our friend here. And if everyone is not getting what they want, I can respect that concern. But what I can also say to them is we're working on it. This is bread and butter stuff. It matters. Of course it matters. And I'll tell you what matters, not hearing this when you ring and you're desperate for paid parental leave or you're desperate for a Centrelink claim or you're desperate for something. Welcome to the Centrelink families and parents line. Thank you for your call.

R U D E It's rude Minister. Yeah, and that's why we're reducing congestion.

And my dude can laugh. I know you do. Look, you say you're doing your best, but this is the reality, right? People are still ringing. They can't get on to anyone. They're getting hung up on. We're not inventing these stories. And whatever Services Australia is feeding you, maybe that's not the reality, Minister. Maybe what you're being fed from your bureaucrats is bureaucratic BS, with the greatest of respect. Yeah.

Now, listen, if we want to have a cliche fest, you win. My point is different. You're legitimately saying people are frustrated. I've recognised that about four times in this interview. But I'm making a point which you consistently ignore. We've put on 3,000 extra people and all of the measures show that the problems are less than they were. I am saying we've arrived in heaven, but what I am saying is that we've arrived at a better place than we were at. And, you know, in the last... From February to June, we have...

paid out in excess $2.5 billion in real business, people who are owed money, and that helps in a cost-to-living crisis. You know, the figures are real, and that's why we put them out.

All right, Minister. Well, keep working on it because it's got to improve drastically. If you've employed 3,000, you might have to employ another 10,000 by the sounds of things. Thanks for coming on. But do you understand? But, Chris, when you say employ another 10,000 people, I hope you back us up then when, you know, everyone goes... I'll back you up when it's fixed because it's not fixed. And you might say the trend's your friend. Well, when you get to, you know, Nirvana, like you're aiming to get to, then I'll give you a big pat on the back. All the best with it. I don't need a pat on the back, mate. Sounds like you want one. Sounds like you want one. No.

If I wanted a pat on the back that wouldn't come on your show, I get it. What we're dealing with is the real issues and there are improvements. That's all I'm saying, mate. Nothing more, nothing less. Bill Shorten, appreciate your time. Thank you for your interest. Bye-bye. That's Minister for Government Services, Bill Shorten.