Effing *#&*^@ incompetent bureaucrats

[trixtah]

(and yes, some of my best friends are bureaucrats, of the competent kind, and they wouldn't pull this shit on me or anyone)

So. I have been in Australia now for about 20 months. I have had a job - the same job - all that time. In fact, I didn't move here until I got a job. It may have been twoo lurrve that brought me here, but I am not the sort of person who will be financially dependent on anyone. Oh bloody no.

With my job, I pay taxes. Lots of them. In fact, this last financial year, I will have paid $32,000 in just income tax. And then there is the Medicare levy. And the superannuation levy. And this is after I stopped getting the fucking payroll tax deducted from my pay due to being a contractor - I have to "work for" a stupid little shell company so I don't get penalised even more for working a role that should be permanent anyway. And, yes, it's fine to do that kind of dodge in Australian tax law. What a waste of time.

However, I like paying taxes. I like many of the things they buy. Such as infrastructure, health care, benefits for the sick and unemployed, etc etc. If it weren't for the fact that other people paid taxes when I was a child and my mother had to bring up 4 of us on social welfare, I wouldn't be here. (Of course, if we lived in a nice anarchist society, we wouldn't need all this bullshit of transferring money around to exchange goods and services, but that's a rant for another day.)

So, if it isn't evident by now, I do the right thing. I discharge my financial obligations, I pay my bills, I don't claim any of the stupid little fucking exemptions on my tax return that all the boys at work are currently claiming. Many of whom earn more than me, so it's not as if they're strapped. (Ok, they have kids, but guess what, they get tax rebates for that -- which I am effectively paying for. And that is actually fine.)

Getting to the point, I wanted to get a Medicare card so I could get some of my entitlements for getting my knee looked at properly (which will probably require minor surgery). I haven't been to a doctor in over 18 months, and that was for a pap smear and general greeblies tests (yes, I know I'm due). As I mentioned above, I have been getting my Medicare levies deducted from my pay like everyone else.

I checked the website for the requirements (PDF)- proof of ID (passport, check), proof of at least 6 months' residency in Australia (a number of items are supposedly accepted, but I had my employment contract, last year's tax return, my lease agreement and a current electricity bill) - I had all I needed to show that I'd been here for 18 months. I took it in to the office, with my correctly filled-in form, and off it all went.

Then last week (after, I don't know, 6 weeks? 2 months?), I got a phone call saying that I needed to prove that I had officially left NZ and that I also needed to show my entry date into Australia. So I went back to the office, with my passport and this year's tax return (for extra ammuniton), and explained that I signed a legal declaration (their form), to say I had no employment or assets in NZ, and it would be very difficult to work fulltime here - as proven previously by my employment contract - and carry on work there for the last year-and-a-half. Also, it's difficult to prove a negative. I presented my passport, showed the page which had the visa stamp of the date I entered Australia as a resident (although I've been back and forward a few times since), they went off and photocopied stuff, and they appeared happy.

Cut to today. I have just opened a letter from the fuckers saying that since I have not proven my residency in Australia, my application will be declined. Although apparently if I present further documentation (such as the fucking passport page showing my visa when I entered Oz), it will be reconsidered. I am so tempted to go in there, show my passport, rip out the fucking visa page and staple it to someone's forehead. Namely the stupid bitch who signed the letter. Perhaps then it'd be sufficient evidence. I've been there twice, in person, showed them my passport twice, with the applicable visa page, they photocopied stuff twice, and they said, when I specifically asked them if they had everything, that yes, it's all good and will be sent off for review.

What gets me is that I have been paying my money all this time. All I should have to do, as a taxpayer, is go in, show my passport and the usual kinds of ID, quote my tax number, and they should be able to fucking look up the fact that I have paid my contributions every fucking month since I've been here, way in excess of the 6 months I need for residency purposes. So it's not just the fucking blind and incompetent frontline staff, it's the stupid stinking system. I also don't see any fucking mention of any kind of refund of the fucking thousands I have already given them.

I am so pissed off (no kidding). I think I'll have a whisky. Or three. GRRRAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!11!!


ETA: And yes, I will go in tomorrow, with the letter, and my nice passport, and be excruciatingly polite when I ask to see the twit who made the decision/signed the letter, and I'll calmly - even if I grind my teeth to the gums - explain the situation, and hopefully it'll all be fixed. It'd better.

Comments

[msss.livejournal.com]

If they don't fix it when you go in, ask specifically for internal review. And if they still give you grief and you need more appeal rights, drop me a line and I'll pull up the admin law textbook.

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Thank you for the pointer, that's great. Hopefully we won't need to bring out the big guns - an "internal review" sounds threatening enough. :-)

I think it's particularly galling because my bureaucratese-fu is normally very good - I research it all, and I do know how to fill in forms.

[saluqi.livejournal.com]

Internal reviews may or may not be useful, depends on the culture of the organisation. External stuff is more likely to be threatening, but it's also a high investment approach, you can usually fix it without going there. I used to do internal reviews in a previous life, let me know if I can help with any research.

In the meantime, they have a dedicated complaints line (http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/about/about_us/service_charter/support_info.htm#feedback) which is what I'd go to next if your visit doesn't work. And yes, the sort of "polite terrier" approach usaully works best. Always be polite, but never let go until you get some action :)

It's a bugger that you can't vote, a letter from a local rep to a Minister often gets this kind of bullshit sorted out PDQ but this is precisely the kind of inefficiency that would secretly please many Australian voters and politicians. At least you're a kiwi with an anglo name, I imagine it's particularly hilarious if you have an arab name.

[msss.livejournal.com]

True, they may not be useful, but they're the cheapest and easiest form of review. I think there are also some external review forms that can't actually be invoked until internal review has failed.

[msss.livejournal.com]

And by "external review forms", I actually meant "forms of external review", not the invocation of the particular pieces of paper... :)

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

Eee, thank you for all that. You know, I would never have found the complaints line, so yay for someone who knows how these organisations work. Frankly, unless you know what the corporate-ese about "service charter" actually means, knowing that's where they hide the complaints line information is about the last thing you'd think of (because of course it isn't in the "contact us" section).

Actually, it seems that the amount of promotion an organisation gives about their service charter (and that is a stupidly designed website section) or customer relations procedures is inversely proportional to the actual service quality it actually delivers.

I should get it unravelled today, but yes, I'll tackle followup (if necessary) in order of the less hassle to the greater - it very much becomes a case of diminishing returns. If they don't want to give me the entitlements, fine, I don't have to pay my levies. *channelling staffie vibe*

And I think part of what is aggravating me in particular is that, as you point out, I'm hardly the most disadvantaged in these circs. I'm the right colour, I have the right kind of name, I natively speak the right language, I come from the right country (or the best possible one in terms of cross-border arrangements, which this isn't), I have money, I don't desperately need services, I'm reasonably intelligent, and I'm literate. Which all makes me wonder how much they cock up for people who don't have those privileges.

[buddleia.livejournal.com]

Oh, for crying out fucking loud. Speaking as a public sector administrator, there isn't an area with a greater tolerance for incompetence, incoherence and idiocy. Unfortunately, it's only profit motive which really kicks this crap out, so the public sector has to be constantly monitored by the public. And I'm with you on the taxes - I don't want the alternatives.

Until I had to help my best friend and her new baby get housed - she was living in my mum's spare room - I had no idea how much of a nightmare this stuff was. But that's a depressing story.

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

I know! Christ knows what I would do if it were important. I mean, my situation is easy. What if you've just gotten off a refugee boat? Huh, well, if you actually reached shore here in Oz, which is something else.

[msss.livejournal.com]

We ship you off shore I believe. Or let you drown. Or try to palm you off on someone else.

[okoshun.livejournal.com]

It seems that dealing with government agencies is the same no matter what country you're in. I hope you can resolve this quickly (and without any more running around). :/

[shangchi.livejournal.com]

Wow, bureaucracy is the same all over the world. You have my total sympathy.

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

I'm running too late with my LJ-reading to wish you good luck, as by now you've already been in. I hope it worked out okay, and you can be sure I'll be looking for a later post of yours with an update.

*hugs*