STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS - Centrelink

26 February 2020

The Morrison government has been secretly closing down Centrelink offices around Australia. They have been doing this without public consultation. From Mornington and Newport in Victoria to Newcastle and Tweed Heads in New South Wales, local communities are waking up to find, in shock, that their Centrelink office has closed. The government are not informing the public of these plans and are leaving jobseekers, the needy, pensioners and other vulnerable Australians out in the cold. My question to the government today is: how many Centrelink offices are you planning to close? Government services minister Stuart Robert must answer this question. I know, in my own community, the offices of Redbank, Goodna and Inala are under threat. Today I'll be writing to the minister, demanding that he keep these offices open, and I encourage every single member on this side of the chamber to hold this rotten government to account. I know the member for Dunkley, the member for Richmond and the shadow minister are standing up for Centrelink users in this country.

We all know what you on the other side think of people who visit Centrelink . We stand by them. We'll continue to support them. This minister has form when it comes to neglect in his portfolio. There's robodebt—w e don't hear much from the government anymore about that. There's t he underspend in the NDIS . A nd now the re's the closure of Centrelink offices. How low will this government go? We stand for the vulnerable in Australia. Those opposite stand for closing down Centrelink offices. (Time expired)