CSIRO expertise to assist Australian Government service delivery

The Australian Government has announced a five-year research alliance between the CSIRO and Centrelink, committing $25 million to drive a significant program of improving Australian Government service delivery.

Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr and Human Services Minister Chris Bowen MP said the Human Services Delivery Research Alliance would help shape the long-term future of service delivery to ensure the best outcomes for Centrelink customers, from families, pensioners, the disabled and their carers to students and job seekers.

“The Australian Government is committed to ensuring Australians have access to the services when and where they need them,” Bowen said.

“But it’s absolutely critical that services are both practical and relevant.

“The government is determined to ensure every Australian has the opportunity to be productive and self-sufficient by making sure the services it provides are appropriate and, where needed, actively create a circuit-breaker to cycles of welfare dependence.

“CSIRO’s research capabilities will help Centrelink better predict and test which services work best for different groups of people and plan the most relevant and suitable interventions for people in need of support.”

Senator Carr said CSIRO’s researchers were used to dealing with statistics and trends but were jumping at the chance to study the way humans engage with government and how that can be improved.

“The alliance will combine Centrelink’s depth of experience in service delivery with CSIRO’s strengths in research to deliver a more efficient and effective National Service Delivery System,” Carr said.

“Science has the tools and methods to model the array of services and programs offered by Centrelink and the way people interact with them at various stages throughout their lives.

“Centrelink has more than six million customers on its records at any one time, providing an excellent source of bulk data and information for CSIRO’s researchers, without providing individual customer’s details.

“By combining research expertise in complex systems analytics, information technology, mathematics, statistics and socio-economic modelling, CSIRO can help improve the lives of all Australians.

“Industries such as mining and manufacturing have drawn on science as a source of innovation for centuries and I am very pleased that CSIRO’s expertise in understanding complex systems is being applied to service provision.”

CSIRO service scientists will focus on three research areas: the human services ecosystem, place-based services and technologies for human service delivery.