LABOR SELLS OUT CENTRELINK AND STAFF
The Member for Berowra, Philip Ruddock MP said today that the Federal Government attempted to brush aside the impacts of the arbitrary budget cut to Centrelink in the order of 3.25% that have resulted in a reduction of service and an increase in customer complaints by inferring that the staff of members of parliament should pick up the workload.
“Electorate officers may well be highly skilled in handling enquiries relating to government programs and services but they are not Centrelink,” Mr Ruddock said.
“It is not the job of a politician’s staff member to take up the workload left behind after the Federal government makes another cut to the public service.
“The Centrelink annual report states that reviews completed on time were down by 4% and requests for appeals on Centrelink decisions were up by more than 6000.”
This performance is a direct result of the Labor government razor gang cuts coupled with the added workload resulting from the Rudd government’s policies leading to higher unemployment and frozen financial assets.
“For the minister to today say that electorate staff of Members and Senators should pick up this work load is an affront to all dedicated Centrelink officials.
“With an 8% increase in Centrelink complaints and blow outs in the time to process applications and reviews the Minister must admit that he has made a mistake and reinstate funding to Centrelink instead of shunting this work off to people who are not trained or experienced Centrelink officials,” Mr Ruddock said.