Australians spent 143 years waiting on hold to Centrelink last year, according to a new Auditor General report.
Of the estimated 43 million calls in 2014, 13 million were abandoned. The average wait time increased to 17 minutes, although many Centrelink recipients claimed to have waited at least an hour.
Over the past five years, Human Services cut 5000 Centrelink call centre jobs. Mobile reporter Natalie Wolfe interviewed Federal Member for Cunningham Sharon Bird about the audit findings.