Centrelink Is Aiming to Decrease Wait Times By Employing 1,000 New Call Centre Operators

How many hours have you wasted on the line with Centrelink?

If you've ever had to dial Centrelink, even just to inquire about something, you'll understand the frustration that many face on a regular basis.

It was revealed last year that in the first ten months of the 2016 – 17 financial period, 42 million calls to the service went unanswered, with average waiting times of 30 minutes for youth and about 16 minutes for family services. That's just under 140,000 calls a day, presumably due to staff being unavailable to take the call. In response to this criticism, 250 extra staff were hired f.

But that number was not sufficient enough, because today, the Minister for Human Services, Michael Keenan, has announced a further 1,000 extra staff will be hired for three years to reduce the wait times.

.@MichaelKeenanMP on Centrelink: Today I’m announcing that we’re going to put on an extra 1,000 staff to make sure that when people call the government they can talk to someone who’s knowledgeable.

MORE: https://t.co/xNvvjWCRsW#amagenda pic.twitter.com/iXj8UNVz6L

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) April 22, 2018

The 1,000 extra staff, however, will be contracted to the private sector, but Keenan maintains they will be trained and working within Australia.

"We know the service that people have been receiving isn't satisfactory and we've been doing things to address that," Keenan told the ABC.

"The decision to outsource jobs to private providers is a growing trend among government departments."

Let's just hope this addition can help to reduce those wait times from 30 minutes to five minutes.

Photo: iStock.com/kokkai