The Braddon Centrelink shopfront will close in December, much to the disappointment of Labor MP Alicia Payne, Member for Canberra, who campaigned earlier in the year to keep it open.
In July, Ms Payne was shocked to see that the Lonsdale Street shopfront – the only Centrelink in the Inner North / Civic – would be up for sale when its lease runs out in February. More than 1,100 people signed Ms Payne’s petition to ‘Save Braddon Centrelink’, and pensioners, carers, and students told the public why the service should remain open.
But today, Services Australia announced the Braddon Service Centre will close. In a letter to Ms Payne, Minister for Government Services Linda Reynolds said the Braddon service centre will be merged with the Gungahlin shopfront in December.
Ms Reynolds also confirmed that there would be no replacement service in the Inner North, and that existing users will be directed to the Gungahlin branch, Ms Payne said.
“Braddon Centrelink is a vital service for those living in central Canberra and the only shopfront in the entire Canberra electorate,” Ms Payne said.
“I am incredibly disappointed by this decision and the way in which they have gone about making it.
“There has been zero community consultation around this decision and zero consideration about what this means for users of the Braddon shopfront.”
General manager Hank Jongen said the decision was made on a steady decline in customer demand, area demographics, and public transport.
Customer demand in Braddon fell by 40 per cent since 2016, he said, as the suburb slowly changed from an area with a high level of community housing, to a shopping and food precinct with new residential apartments. Light rail can now take customers who would have previously visited the Braddon office directly to Gungahlin.
“There will be no job losses as a result of these changes,” Mr Jongen said. “All staff from the Braddon Service Centre will relocate to other Canberra service centres.”
Services Australia will still support vulnerable customers across the Inner North, including regularly visiting Ainslie Village, Mr Jongen said.
“Canberrans still have a higher ratio of service centres compared to most other major metropolitan areas,” Mr Jongen said.
There are four Centrelink offices in the ACT: Gungahlin and Belconnen (which will soon have modernised northside offices), Woden and Tuggeranong. In addition, there is one over the border in Queanbeyan.
Modern technology meant “Fewer people need to attend service centres,” Mr Jongen said. These days, many people use digital services such as myGov and Express Plus mobile apps.
“While it’s true that many people deal with Centrelink online, Centrelink’s own rules require people to visit a shopfront for certain interactions,” Ms Payne said.
The move will force vulnerable Canberrans, pensioners, carers, people with disability, and students to travel to Belconnen, Woden, or Gungahlin to access face-to-face services, she argued.
“The JobSeeker payment is so unreasonably low that even the additional costs of public transport will be too much for some people, including those with burdensome mutual obligation requirements,” Ms Payne said.
She said it showed how out-of-touch the Morrison Government was. Jobs figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics this week showed 138,000 Australians lost their jobs in September, and more Australians were out of work than in August.
“A record number of Canberrans needed financial help from Centrelink at the start of the pandemic, and there were long lines of people on Lonsdale Street,” she said.
“With unemployment rising in the last month and the pandemic far from over, it is unbelievable that the Morrison Government would rip away this critical support from Canberrans.”
Ms Payne urged Canberrans to keep signing her petition to show the Morrison Government how important this service is for Canberrans.
“I will not take this decision lying down,” she said. “I will continue to fight to save Braddon Centrelink.
“My petition is still accepting signatures, and I would encourage you to share it with your contacts”.
Ms Payne also encouraged Canberrans to write directly to Minister Reynolds and ACT Liberal Senator Zed Seselja to express their disappointment at this decision.
“Senator Seselja just recently agreed to make inquiries within his own Government on this issue,” she said. “Either he didn’t, or he couldn’t convince his colleagues.”
The petition can be signed on the Member for Canberra’s website: aliciapayne.com.au/save-braddon-centrelink/
