Now that there are lines for Centrelink services and their offices being packed, the government has effectively made a mass spreading event. Maybe look forward to case numbers skyrocketing in a few weeks?
Posted Mar 22, 2020, 10:53 PM UTC
People actually have to go to Centrelink. They (all tiers of government) are insane. This virus has certainly exposed all the stupid in this country. From our incompetent leader to the lady in Coles oldies hour who bottlenecked the aisle to tell people God was in charge and the bottle shops should not close.
I am a teetotaler but at this rate I might as well start drinking to drown out the disappointment.
They don't need to do it like this. It should just be a simple form to fill out online and in person should only be for people that can't do it online or by phone. When I got my stimulus in 2008 it was automatic. I didn't do anything.
Yep, hence my reply to another comment that the US seems to be actually planning a better way of distributing the stimulus (i.e. via bank accounts tied to 2018 IRS records).
It is just an online application, however to get to the point to do that you need to have you’re ID verified unfortunately
If I recall correctly, the previous stimulus was issued to those working either through or using the info from the ATO.
People who don't have a CRN or have not accessed their Centrelink for some time need to go in-person to register/reactivate.
The worst part is that it's so unneccessary, there's no reason you couldn't have a universal payment and just use the existing tax system to take back as much as you want from whoever you think has enough. All centrelink does by means testing and forcing people into the perfect conditions to spread the disease to each other during a pandemic is duplicate a process that could be achieved by the ATO as part of its usual duties. The whole thing could be automatic!
Rudd's payment didn't require people to huddle up in lines around the block to receive it, and there wasn't even a pandemic to use an excuse to bypass the traditional "make the poor work for it" attitude that seems to get brought out for why recipients are forced to jump through all these hoops in order to get help to survive. The fact that the current government has chosen to use the existing system that's beyond capacity at the best of times is absolutely baffling, I can barely even think of better ways to maximize the spread of a virus during a pandemic than forcing masses of people into long hours of close proximity as this does. What an own goal.
100% agree.
Universal Basic Income is the way forward.
And people heading to the shops once the payments clear.
Well that is the whole intention of the stimulus after all. Get money flowing within the economy to prevent a liquidity freeze.
I know. But people all rushing to the shops at once isn't helping anything. Hopefully the major supermarkets have worked out a more sustainable online order system by then.
I know, but the government definitely isn't helping. They keep harping on about the 1.5m distance and 4m^2 spacing but what they did was effectively made that unenforceable through the centrelink queues.
And don't get me started about the schools.
"Do what I say, not as I do" or "Natural consequences? What are those?"
Why didn't they open pop up Centerlink offices that deal directly with Covid-19 payments?...why do we put up with such inept fucking idiots governing us?
It takes time and resources to spin up offices. Where would you source all the computers, how would you network them to their secure backends, how would you advertise the new locations; the list goes on an on. They should have skipped the whole process and as some other person pointed out just lodge a single form (editable pdf). Heck just make it so we don't even need to check if they are getting paid, especially since last year the ATO has implemented a system of mandating per-pay cycle reporting of income to the ATO for all employees (though I might be wrong about that).
Yeh they've only had a month to prepare, what was I thinking.
My proposal would be just to skip the middle man. If you are going to do stimulus, do it broad based. Also what I said about automatically approving it and just cross checking against ATO is faster to implement without having to do all that logistic work in the field. Besides the ATO already has all your info, if they had to verify your details or confirm that you are applying for it, why not do it through Mygov and scale those backend resources to meet network demand?
There should've been a plan ready to go in case of a national emergency anyway; rather than hoping it could be figured out in a month if needed.
Scott Morrison activated a National Emergency Response to the coronavirus on Feb 27th, he's had a month to get ready for this and yet again our government have completely failed us.
I work in DES/Jobactive for a provider in Brissy. The Cenno office around the corner had a queue of at least a hundred people lined up a little after 7am and I can only imagine more lined up.
We heard word they are supposedly only allowing 5 people in at a time and with no extra staff and no extension of hours this is going to suck and I feel so bad! You can't social distance in a queue! There's no extra staffing or hours.
My employer has finally announced no clients allowed in the office ,no job site visits and no group activities (Work for the Dole). We are to do phone contact only and restrictions have been lifted to allow to record verbal information. This is fine for everybody already in the system but what about all the new clients?
Centrelink = Bondi Beach 2.0
And just in, apparently 49 48 passengers from the Ruby Princess were tested positive...
Fark, really?
If we can talk to people in space and get data from a robot on Mars why can’t someone figure out video chat and how to make websites that work?
Also, you don’t need to create a new website everytime you want to add some content, just let a competent web designer figure out for you how to keep the info accessible.
I believe their backend systems were designed in the 1980s and maybe for legacy purposes must be able to interface with them. You can't really integrate something from the 1980s to work with modern frameworks and Infrastructure as Code type deployments.
Legacy code is notoriously hard to refactor or to reimplement or integrate with modern systems. For instance the NSW TAFE system spent $500M to update its student management system and when it was released in 2015, it was buggy as hell and probably took another 200M and a few more years to iron out. Hell I think Qld health spent like $2B and eventually scrapped it when everything went tits up.
I guess we will have to live with their shit systems for a long time...
well yeah
plus gerry harvey said business is booming
we'll all be sick and broke in a few weeks but at least we'll have a new TV and 1000000 dunny rolls
Surely these things can be done online or over the phone.
No. I can’t access either this morning to report for my usual (pre covid) payment, which means I probably won’t get paid. The online system failed and says "service unavailable". The entire myGov server was done when I tried again before. The app tells me to call. I called the jobseeker line and, if I can actually get passed “call failed”, it encourages me to try later, “or just hang up”, and hangs up on me. I called the self service line and it also disconnects up on me. I call back and the call fails. The complaints line is disconnected. The recorded message says not to go in person. The system is broken.
Maybe the Americans will learn how not to distribute their planned $1.3T USD stimulus package. I heard they were going to pay it directly to bank accounts via their IRS tax records so they don't turn up to their social security offices.
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The systems have collapsed massively. The app won't work, my gov website has crashed, phones have hung up on me 3 times today (when I've actually gotten through to be on hold). Tried to call the water company, they are "congested, please call back later". Have been told other utility phone lines have the same problem.
The phone lines must be completely backed up by now. I mean even without this it takes hours just to get through to centrelink; they have been undermanned for almost 2 decades. The website isn't allowing anyone who doesn't have a CRN, can't link it to their mygov account or needs to verify their ID in person to visit an office. I believe they also can't verify a person over the phone until those procedures are devised into official protocols.
Some more excellent organising from the government. They have had 3 months to prepare for this.
Well it was probably devised over the course of 2 weeks after the situation deteriorated almost immediately after its announcement. Remember the massive falls on the share market, airlines shutting down operations, entire countries shutting down, etc.
They probably were cautiously optimistic that things wouldn't pan out like this but well hindsight is 20/20 (even though we already knew how to deal with it from how the Asian countries dealt with SARS).
Edit: Well shoot, the market isn't taking the news too well. ASX down ~8%. I know it is only early trading and it is only 1 day but the market is already down ~35% in about the span of 1 month. That takes years to recover.
Yeah, I do not understand their optimism though as anyone that was actively following or researching this even just 2 months ago could find information on how serious this virus is and the havoc it was going to unleash. Which still baffles me as to why the government all though as stepped up is still not acting enough to stop what already is coming.
My friend was unable to. He's out of a job.
You'd think so. You have to get a customer reference number to start an application on Centrelink. Have to go in in person to get that. It's bullshit at.the best of times but seems suicidal now.