Power of community: Bill Shorten and Nadia David after being presented with a community petition of more than 1300 signatures calling for the reopening of the Benalla Centrelink office by local Labor party member Hamish McPherson (right).
Former Australian Labor Party leader Bill Shorten joined its candidate for Indi, Nadia David, in Benalla on Thursday, March 17.
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The pair was greeted by a crowd of supporters outside the former Benalla Centrelink office before talking about why they believed its closure was a mistake.
While both stopped short of making its reopening an election promise, both went into detail about why the Rose City needed this “vital government service”.
After acknowledging the crowd’s passion in speaking up against the Centrelink closure, Mr Shorten described the way it was removed as akin to gaslighting.
“I think the Benalla community has been gaslighted by the ... government over the closure of (Centrelink),“ Mr Shorten said.
Political passion: A group of local people, joined by Labor candidate for Indi Nadia David, as they await Bill Shorten’s arrival.
“... When did smaller communities become viewed as disposable or commodified or not quite good enough to deserve actual Commonwealth public service?
“They gaslight us on climate change. They gaslight us on cost of living. They gaslight us on housing. They gaslight us on any range of issues, and of course government services are at the forefront.
“Your experience in Benalla is not unique. In the last four years the government has quietly closed 28 shopfront services around Australia.
“They never announce it. If they open one they announce it. If they're closing one you’ve got to go searching through the yearly budgets and accounts to see what’s happened.
“But that really isn't good enough, is it? Centrelink, as we've seen during COVID, demonstrates what we set up a Centrelink to be.
“We cannot have a safety net in this country which is just for blue sky days.
“We need a safety net which is there, which can respond in depth and in quality when people are doing it hard.
“And I think COVID has demonstrated the sterile nature of successive Coalition governments who wound back the safety net.
“And for a lot of people ... they discovered during COVID they need a Centrelink, people who've never been there before.
“When you need a Centrelink, you don't just need a portal or a contracted telephone centre in another town.
“You're not necessarily sailing on top of the world as it is.
“They shouldn't be treated as second class. This system in our country is that whilst we're the country of great opportunity, we are the country also of a deep and generous safety net.
“And you never know when you're going to need it. And that's why it should be there.”
When asked directly if they would bring Centrelink back to Benalla if a Labor government was elected at the upcoming federal election, both Mr Shorten and Ms David declined to make it a commitment.
“We’ve got to look under the bonnet of Centrelink,” Mr Shorten said.
“I think there is a case for government services to be administered here (in Benalla).
“What form that takes, I'm going to have to look under the bonnet of Centrelink and see.
“But I know that we've got to have more public servants working at Centrelink.
“We've got to be less reliant on labour hire and... we can’t ask people to be travelling big distances to get minimum answers.
“So I can't give a final answer. But what I can say is we respect Centrelink and even more importantly we respect the people who use it.
“That's what will guide us in terms of resource allocation."
Following the visit to the former Centrelink site Mr Shorten and Ms David held an event at Benalla Bowls Club where they spoke with local people about their experience with the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
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