#notmydebt

The truth behind Centrelink’s unbelievably good call centre stats has come out in Senate Estimates, pressure is ramping up on the minister over his role in releasing a client’s personal details, and the bipartisan support for a bill giving Veterans’ Affairs similar powers is now in doubt.

Centrelink maintains it is legal to release a client’s personal details to “correct the record” but the privacy commissioner is asking questions about its decision to do so in the controversial case of blogger Andie Fox anyway.

Centrelink has rejected extremely serious and detailed allegations reportedly made by a staff member, claiming they misunderstand the welfare system.

Auditor-general Grant Hehir has decided not to look into Centrelink’s debt recovery efforts, as requested by shadow minister Linda Burney. He’ll wait and see what the Commonwealth Ombudsman has to say, and might add it to his 2017-18 to-do list.

Centrelink should take a light-touch approach like the Australian Taxation Office, writes Curtin University’s Helen Hodgson. The ATO’s stated aim is to make compliance easy and non-compliance hard.

Centrelink staff are getting advanced training in dealing with aggressive clients just as the union warns the front lines are about to get messier than usual, and artificial intelligence begins to take over customer-facing roles.