Looking for a positive solution – Senator Judith Adams

$9m cut in services to rural Australia

Yesterday in Senate Estimates Senator Judith Adams raised her concerns regarding the closure of the 49 regional Medicare Easy Booths at Community Resource Centres in WA.  The Senator's primary cause for concern was the fact that 13 of those locations will not have a Centrelink office located nearby where the local community can continue to access Medicare services. 

“The amalgamation of Centrelink and Medicare Services into the same location under the Department of Human Services will not create difficulties  for some communities, but I am aware that 13 of these locations will not have a Centrelink office located nearby where the local community can continue to access Medicare services” Senator Adams said today.

“I have received information from Community Resource Centres for which I am Patron Senator.  Some of the issues causing concern are the profiles of the customers for this service; this includes the elderly, people with hearing difficulties, people with literacy difficulties and people who simply cannot cope with the paperwork involved.  Many of these people do not have home computers and are not familiar with operating a computer.  Some of them do not have home phone lines and would have to use public phone booths to process their claims” Senator Adams said. 

“Community Resource Centres will not turn away people asking for help and this will effectively mean a cost shifting away from the Commonwealth on to local Resource Centres who will no longer receive funding for this purpose.”

“I have approached the Minister for Human Services Tanya Plibersek to achieve an positive outcome for those centres who are experiencing difficulty and the people who use them” Senator Adams said.

Media Contact : Alana Lacy 0418 102 945 / 98 416 143