Gavin Neary.

I recently became unemployed after 25yrs of full time employment due to a medical condition and had to apply for centrelink payments.
I was shocked at how immensely frustrating and insensitvely impersonal, that awful process was to go through.
I had to endure hrs and hrs of sitting, waiting, and filling in details online, downloading apps, uploading forms, and waiting for phonecalls, and staring at the floor in centrelink offices waiting for service with other frustrated people, with babies screaming, people crying, and listening to elderly people talking amongst themselves, complaining about how difficult it was for them to use computers and phones and why there wasnt someone that could do it for them.
I felt as though I was being made to do the data entry work of the staff at centrelink for them, with very little assistance and compassion when I did finally get to talk to one of them face to face.
It seems as though its all just a cost cutting measure for the Australian government who are making the system easier for themselves by having less staff sitting at desks and having to talk to people face to face.
Maybe this is all a part of the australian government, as simply a cost saving plan to deter the australian people from relying in benefits by making it harder to apply for assistance, or so it seems.