{"id":23318,"date":"2023-10-10T02:55:46","date_gmt":"2023-10-10T02:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=23318"},"modified":"2023-10-10T02:55:46","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T02:55:46","slug":"twenty-four-hours-of-chaos-with-services-australia-strike-underway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2023\/10\/10\/twenty-four-hours-of-chaos-with-services-australia-strike-underway\/","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-four hours of chaos with Services Australia strike underway"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Government Services Minister Bill Shorten must stop hiding and explain to the public what Centrelink and Medicare services have been impacted because of today\u2019s union-led strike at Services Australia, and the long-term scale of the disruption on customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to media reports the strike could involve almost 30 per cent of Services Australia\u2019s 34,000 strong workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy Paul Fletcher said the strike is a powerful example of an agency and government that has misplaced its priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cServices Australia is a basket case and Bill Shorten needs to accept responsibility for its litany of failures,\u201d Mr Fletcher said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAustralians need Centrelink and Medicare services more than ever because of Labor\u2019s cost of living crisis and this industrial action will cause angst and confusion for people already doing it tough. Monday also happens to be the busiest day for Services Australia telephony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI wrote to Bill Shorten on Friday requesting he outline the impact the strike will have on service delivery across the agency for today and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The letter requested Mr Shorten to provide the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Expected duration of the strike<\/li><li>Expected number of staff involved in the strike per face-to-face site<\/li><li>Expected impact on face-to-face wait times per site<\/li><li>Expected impact on timelines for claims processing and payments<\/li><li>Best internal agency point of contact for case escalation<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Locally-based Senator Paul Scarr said that it is very disappointing that the Albanese Labor Government has been unable to reach an agreement with the Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe people of Ipswich rely upon this Centrelink office and these services. Ipswich suffers from a higher level of unemployment than most of Australia \u2013 the last regional figure was 6.5% compared to a national rate of 3.7%. Pensioners and carers rely upon this office to access services,\u201d Senator Scarr said.\u201cIn this cost-of-living crisis there are many Ipswich residents doing it tough. The Labor Government needs to explain what it is going to do to make sure that this industrial action does not impact Ipswich residents trying to access their entitlements.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Government Services Minister Bill Shorten must stop hiding and explain to the public what Centrelink and Medicare services have been impacted because of today\u2019s union-led strike at Services Australia, and the long-term scale of the disruption on customers. According to media reports the strike could involve almost 30 per cent of Services Australia\u2019s 34,000 strong &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2023\/10\/10\/twenty-four-hours-of-chaos-with-services-australia-strike-underway\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Twenty-four hours of chaos with Services Australia strike underway&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23318"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23319,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23318\/revisions\/23319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}