Marie had cancer and needed to reach Centrelink. Like millions of Australians, she couldn’t get through

After a shock cancer diagnosis last year, Marie found herself on welfare payments for the first time. She says she spent weeks calling Centrelink every day, and that call waiting times were substantial. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

When Marie was in the throes of her cancer treatment, she rang Centrelink every day for weeks, desperate to get through to them so she could access her superannuation.

“I spent six weeks, maybe a month, ringing every day,” she says. “I was incredibly ill at the time, and I was trying to get hold of them, being put on hold, being cut off and making absolutely no progress whatsoever. It was hours, hours and hours and it’s very demoralising.”