Centrelink: History, Operations, and Controversy

This report analyzes the history, operations, and controversy surrounding Centrelink, the leading social security provider in Australia. It discusses the origin and development of Centrelink, the concept of social security payments, the various services provided by Centrelink, and the debt recovery controversy faced by the agency. Despite controversies, Centrelink continues to be a popular and efficient provider of social security payments in Australia.

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Centrelink
Name of the Student
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Executive Summary
Centrelink is one of the most commonly and widely known companies in Australia
that provides the social security payments to the categories of the people who needs it. It is
because of the efforts that the companies make that it has become widely known not only in
Australia but also in other countries of the world as well. Thus, this report will analyse the
operations as well the history and the controversy which the company faced in the past.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
History....................................................................................................................................3
What is Social Security Payment?.........................................................................................4
Operations of Centrelink Australia........................................................................................5
Controversy............................................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
Reference List............................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
Centrelink, also known as The Centrelink Master Programme is known to be one of
the Departments of the Human Services master programme of the Government of Australia.
The program is aimed to provide a wide range of payments as well as various kinds of
services for the categories of the people which includes the unemployed, old people, parents,
people with physical as well as mental disabilities and also people like students as well as
apprentices and those from different cultures and countries as well as the tribal and the
indigenous people of the country. They are known to be one of the best companies in the
world which deals with the subject matter of social security payments. This report will
perform an analysis of the history as well as the workings of the company as well as the
controversy of the debt recovery that they were involved in the country.
Discussion
History
The origin of the Centrelink Master Program is said to have started in the year of 1997
as a part of the Department of the Social Security under the Commonwealth Services
Delivery Agency in the year 1997. Since then, the agency of the government has worked
obtained the Centrelink brand name after the passing of the Commonwealth Services
Delivery Agency Act in the country itself. Gradually, the agency started to establish their
office in various cities for the purpose of providing their services to the customers who were
in need of such services in the city by providing them with the social security payments
(Dee,2013). All these operations of the agency of the government helped the agency to
establish itself as one of the leading government agencies in Australia that deals with the
subject matter of helping the needy people of the country by providing them with the much-
needed social security payments for their use. Thus, Centrelink is said to have been

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performing their duties with the utmost care and efficiency for the benefit of the Australians
in their lives.
What is Social Security Payment?
The term “Social Security Payment” is referred to the welfare payments which are
paid to the needy individuals by the Australian Government themselves. These needy people
are the ones who belong to the categories of the old people, students and foreigners as well as
the people with the physical as well as the mental disabilities in themselves. These payments
are done through the system of general taxation and can only be given to the people who have
a permanent residency (MacDonald, 2015). There have been a number of agencies in
Australia which deals with the subject matter of the providing social security payments to the
people. However, Centrelink is the most popular agency which deals with the social security
payments to the citizens who have obtained permanent residency in the country itself.
Thus, it can be said that the concept of the social security payments is considered to
be a good way of helping the needy and Centrelink seems to be performing their services
efficiently.
Operations of Centrelink Australia
Centrelink is best known to the audiences as the agency of the Government of
Australia which is known to provide variety of social security payments to the Australian
citizens in the country itself. These services include payment for the visa holders living in the
country so that they do not face any kinds of problems (Marston, 2015).
Other kinds of payments that the agency of the Government makes is the payment to
the older people and the people with the disabilities so that such people can live their old
lives without facing any major difficulties in their old ages. This payment also covers their
basic needs of the old age.

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The third service which has been provided by the company includes providing
payment for the tribal Australians as well as the aboriginals living on the islands itself for
their welfare and their healthy living for the future generation.
All this information provided to the audiences prove the point that Centrelink is
effectively functioning in the providing of the social security payments to the audiences in the
country itself.
Controversy
This section tells the readers the fact that just like any other businesses, Centrelink
had also faced a number of controversies during its service period. However, the most
important controversy that the agency of the Government had come across is the debt-
recovery controversy in the year 2016. It is stated that in the year 2016, the agency had been
collecting the data and the information of the recipients of the services against the data from
the Australian Taxation Office (Ernest et. all, 2015).
This created a controversy where due to certain difficulties, the data of certain
recipients were not properly received at the systems of the agency itself. This has been
referred to as the “robo-debt”, which was intended to save $300m to the agency itself (Dee,
2013).
In the recent times, the Australian Federal Budget is said to expand the data matching
scheme. In the recent years, itself, these schemes are said to be worked upon and challenged
by a company named Victoria Legal Aid (VLA) which aims to make sure that such
controversies do not happen with the company again.

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Conclusion
From the above discussed points, it can therefore be concluded that the Centrelink is
indeed performing its functions as one of the leading social security providers in the country
of Australia itself. With the range of services that they have been providing to the country
itself, it can be said that they are indeed one of the most popular companies around. While
they might have faced controversies at one time, they have managed to provide their services
in such a manner that the customers who demand such services are indeed happy with the
services which the company provides to the people of Australia themselves.

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Reference List
Dee, M. (2013). Welfare surveillance, income management and new paternalism in Australia.
Surveillance & Society, 11(3), 272-286.
Earnest, J., Mansi, R., Bayati, S., Earnest, J. A., & Thompson, S. C. (2015). Resettlement
experiences and resilience in refugee youth in Perth, Western Australia. BMC
research notes, 8(1), 236.
Hart, D. (2013). Processes of social work engagement with the reforming state in Australia:
The case of Centrelink.
Marston, G., & Shevellar, L. (2014). In the shadow of the welfare state: the role of payday
lending in poverty survival in Australia. Journal of social policy, 43(1), 155-172.
McDonald, C. (2013). Poverty in Australia and the social work response. Asia Pacific
Journal of Social Work and Development, 23(1), 3-11.
McSwiney, J., & Cottle, D. (2017). Unintended consequences: One Nation and neoliberalism
in contemporary Australia. Journal of Australian Political Economy, The, (79), 87.

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Prenzler, T. (2016). Welfare fraud prevention in Australia: A follow-up study. Crime
Prevention & Community Safety, 18(3), 187-203.