Minister highlights benefit of Access Canberra as more Canberrans renew driver licences online

There are still plenty of government “services” that can only be contacted through Access Canberra and if the queue is long then there is no way of knowing how long one will have to wait. I had to wait 15 minutes listening to on hold music.

I had to make an appointment for one of these services a few days ago and received an email confirming it along with other helpful information from the directorate concerned. Then because of an unforeseen issue I had to cancel it so I sent an email to the directorate email address which turned out to be a no reply address so I had to refer the request to cancel the appointment by making a new application by phone to Access Canberra.
I wasn’t going to waste another 15 minutes so I sent copies of the email I had received and my request to cancel to Access Canberra by email.
The next day I received a phone call from the directorate to tell me cancellation by email to Access Canberra was unacceptable and I should have phoned them direct through their number 132281 which is actually Access Canberra’s number, apparently they were unaware that all calls were re-routed through Access Canberra. It’s a total time wasting shemozzle.

My last interaction with Access Canberra was a request for some action on another matter which I sent by email. It took three weeks to reach the directorate concerned by which time no action could be taken.

Why do we have to use Access Canberra to contact various government agencies etc.?

The real reason for promoting online services is revealed in this statement from the Minister: “We find many Canberrans make the trip into a Service Centre, hassle to find a park and queue……”.
This is the “building receptivity” tactic as part of the overall strategy to close all ACT shopfronts.

The Government is doing the same thing now with some bus services that are currently direct but will become integrated with the tram requiring a change of mode at Dickson: https://www.transport.act.gov.au/news-and-events/items/august-2017/timetable-changes-from-8-october

Note that the government calls these changes “improvements”. We have the government we voted for.

In light of the proposed National use of the photos in a identity data base, I wonder how long it will be before the federales have a series of objections around the integrity of using older photos. Remember, you need to supply a new photo at your passport renewal.

I’m glad this has finally happened in Canberra, but it’s a little ridiculous to talk about it like it’s some kind of groundbreaking innovation. In WA this has been the norm for many years, and I’m sure it’s already in place in many other states.