Comment on Long Centrelink wait times as 11 million calls go unanswered

• Ilandar@aussie.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I wasn’t disagreeing with anything you said, though I have witnessed Centrelink staff putting a minimum amount of effort in when dealing with clients over the phone. Just sharing information that may help others get something out of a phone call that seems like it’s going nowhere.

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  • Taleya@aussie.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The system is designed to drive people over the edge, so the workers cop the simmer frustration in the face every time someone does get through, which completely disengages them, causes them to put in minimal effort and thus drives more people over the edge as they’re mishandled.

    Fucking machiavelli is creaming his goddamn jeans rn

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    • Ilandar@aussie.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      The system is designed to drive people over the edge

      Particularly when it comes to JobSeeker. The entire system is just filled with these arbitrary hoops and roadblocks designed to make people give up instead of actually helping them find work they are capable of keeping long-term. All the while you have the rest of the population, from major party politicians to the general public, who are fortunate enough to have never been in a position to deal with this system, dictating a completely fictitious narrative to the people who have lived experience with it. To be honest, I try not to dwell on it too much because the whole thing is sickeningly evil.

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      • Baku@aussie.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        My mum was hit by a car while she was riding her bike when she was young, and growing up as a young girl in the 70s, she was told there was nothing wrong with her and wasn’t taken to a hospital or doctor for many weeks. She ended up suffering debilitating injuries to her back and hips, and by the time I was born when she was in her 30s, she couldn’t work. I remember quite distinctly that I was with her when she had to go into Centrelink, and they told her that she could not be classed as disabled because if she got a hip replacement, she’d probably be able to work again. So she stayed on Newstart, and whatever Newstart was before it was called Newstart.

        Every week she had to go into those stupid job agency network things for a whopping 5 minutes so they could ask her if she had any changes in circumstance and then “sorry, no jobs for you. Come back next week”.

        Obviously the thing about not being classed as not disabled/unable to work was probably BS, or at least misleading, but she didn’t know how to navigate the system, so she just did the best she could, hobbling down to the job agency every week and reporting “I have not earnt any income” to Centrelink every fortnight.

        The people running that shitshow are scumbags. They know what they’re doing. That’s kind of what happens when you put people with a “fuckin lazy bludgers want to get paid for doing nothing sitting on their arses all days, while I’m out here doing REAL work” mentality in charge of the system.

        My mum has her own problems, and didn’t always handle things very well, but as I’ve gotten older and had to deal with more aspects of the system myself, I understand why people get burnt out, give up, and can’t muster up the energy or time to fight the system on every single thing they need to do to survive

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  • Baku@aussie.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Fair enough, my apologies. It seemed like you interpreted my line referring to them as people making minimum wage doing shitty work as accusing the staff of always doing shitty work.

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    • Ilandar@aussie.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Nah not at all, the majority of the conversations I’ve had or witnessed with Centrelink staff have been positive ones.

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      • Baku@aussie.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Me too

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