Australia’s ageing Centrelink IT system is
set to be consigned to the scrapheap at a cost of A$1 billion following
concerns it won’t be able to handle a planned overhaul of the welfare system.
Federal social services minister Scott Morrison told Sky News that when the
system was first launched in the 1980s, some 2.5 million Australians received
payments. He noted that today there are about 10 million welfare recipients,
with A$400 million spent on some 50 million transactions every day.
“This is a
system that still has manual processing attached to it, and it’s been left to
basically wither for many years,” said Morrison. “It’s time for it to get some
serious attention.” He added that the system though stable was inefficient and
noted that the government would see instant cost savings if the computer system
would be replaced.
“It could run far more efficiently and
effectively both for the users and for the government,” he said, stressing that
despite reports of a A$1 billion price tag, the overhaul of the system would
lead to savings both in the sort and long-term. The move was backed by the
Labor opposition, with shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh saying that “the
case… has been pretty strongly made that this system is groaning under the
weight of what’s being demanded of it.”
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