Melbourne

That's what makes it so hard dealing with places like Centrelink. They're deliberately understaffed and treated like shit to be the interface of a hostile system. There's no point being angry at the person you're talking to because they're not the decision makers who set the system up to be so unpleasant to deal with. And those who did set it up that way are insulated off away from the public and just close down any channel of communication you find to tell them what pieces of shit they are.

It's been a while but I found it faster to go into the office than call.

This only works at home… but sometimes if I’m in a bad way and stressing with the wait times I lie in bed with the phone on my pillow and have it on speakerphone, so I can just kind of rest and doze without fully dropping off. When they speak it can snap you out of it to answer.

Or you can speakerphone while doing something else like cleaning or dishes