Centrelink service centres in Mayfield and Newcastle will not be merged "at this stage", Government Services Minister Linda Reynolds has said, but her department "is continuing to look at the best servicing model for the Newcastle community".
As part of a proposal revealed in late 2019, the federal government was planning to merge five Centrelink offices, including the Mayfield and Newcastle service centres, into a "mega-office".
It ran an expressions of interest process that ended in early 2020 seeking 8100 square metres of space in either Waratah, Georgetown, Hamilton North, Hamilton East, Broadmeadow, Newcastle West, Wickham, Maryville or Tighes Hill.
The new office would have housed about 500 staff and resulted in the Newcastle and Mayfield service centres closing, but the head of Services Australia - the department which Centrelink and Medicare fall under - stressed that no jobs would be lost in the merger.
The Newcastle Herald reported last year that at least half a dozen formal EOIs were submitted, but the government had appeared to have shelved the plan in light of the coronavirus outbreak.
It had mooted 2022 as a timeline for consolidating the existing tenancies.
Newcastle MP Sharon Claydon wrote to the Government Services Minister Linda Reynolds in September seeking an update on the proposal, which she has been campaigning against since it first emerged.
She said at the time the government's "provision of essential services" in the electorate was already "alarming" and Centrelink was "without contest, the number one issue" constituents raise with her.
In a letter to Ms Claydon, Minister Reynolds did not rule out a merger.
"The agency is committed to maintaining face-to-face services for Newcastle residents, providing Medicare and Centrelink services in the same location," she said.
"The agency is continuing to look at the best servicing model for the Newcastle community. At this stage, the agency's current office arrangements will remain the same, and it will update the community if it decides to propose changes."
Ms Claydon slammed the response, saying the Morrison government needed to "come clean" about its "national Centrelink closure plan". She said 10 offices had closed around the country in the past year, some "with such haste and secrecy even Cabinet Ministers have been caught by surprise".
"From Mornington and Newport in Victoria to Newcastle and Tweed Heads in NSW, local communities have been left in a state of anxiety and uncertainty, unsure if their local Centrelink office is even going to be there, when they need it," Ms Claydon said.
"Once again, the minister is hiding under the guise of 'commercial-in-confidence', leaving vulnerable Novocastrians completely in the dark."
