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AAP
AAP
Politics
Andrew Brown

Busy message greets one-in-five welfare agency callers

Millions of people calling Services Australia are met with a busy message. (Dan Peled/AAP PHOTOS)

More than one-in-five callers to Services Australia are left hanging on the telephone, with senior department officials admitting more needs to be done to reduce wait times.

Department heads told a Senate estimates hearing that of the 41 million calls made to Services Australia in the 2022/23 financial year, nine million were met with congestion messages.

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