The Community and Public Sector Union has said the Centrelink debt recovery system has left the Australian public with a 'bad taste in their mouth', in response to the Coalition continuing to claim the system is 'working well'.
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Appearing on behalf of the union representing public sector staff, Tull explained that the high error rate in letters sent to welfare recipients -- flagged previously by Minister for Social Services Christian Porter as only 0.16 percent -- has seen the impact flow on from Centrelink customers into the staff dealing with complaints.
"I think everybody understands now that there is a very, very high error rate," Tull said.
"The other issue that goes with that is that every time staff are forced to deal with one of those cases, it drags them away from other work that needs to get done and it's having knock-on effects so customers elsewhere aren't getting the service they need.
"Underpinning all of this is Centrelink is an agency that has been run into the ground and the government has cut 5,000 jobs out of the place -- it's had a terrible impact on the service standards -- and now they're trying to get this compliance work done on the cheap.
"There's no way this can be said to be working well."