Centrelink will enlist up to 1,000 staff from labour-hire firms to help it recover debts and enforce the compliance of welfare recipients.
The move has prompted a furious response from the main public sector union, which labelled it yet another example of the government privatising our safety net.
But a spokesman for the Department of Human Services (DHS), Hank Jongen, has described it as simply a temporary surge in the use of private contractors, a practice that was neither new or unusual.
The large-scale outsourcing exercise comes a month after the government announced 250 staff from multinational outsourcing giant Serco would be used in Centrelinks call centre, which has struggled to reduce excessive waiting times.
The depart…
Read the full article at: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/nov/22/centrelink-to-use-1000-labour-hire-staff-to-help-recover-welfare-debts
