tax office help an oxymoron

The lovely JJ (a Registered Div1 nurse in the Philippines) has come to stay in Frankston for a few months while she brushes up on her English at Chisholm TAFE.

As she is here on a student visa, she is allowed to work 20 hours per week.

Best get a TFN ASAP says I, visiting the ATO website and hoping to do the deed online. JJ does not drive and has no car but, because she has a passport and visa number does not need to apply personally for ID purposes.

And so I progress from page A to B to C and back again as the ATO website takes me round in a loop. Okay, so if you do what you always did you will get what you always got, but when I travelled in the loop three times more it was just to confirm the doing what I always did part.

No mind, there is a 1300 number we can call and speak to an operator 24/7.

The recorded message at the 1300 number offers option 1 [order forms through post] or option 2 [speak to an operator]. The second option takes one to a lot of recorded waffle designed to encourage use of online services – then suggests if one really wishes to talk to an operator one must call during normal business hours.

It almost makes sense [morally bankrupt as it is] for government to make Senna Link’s systems impenetrable. At least it will save government from haemorrhaging money.

Making the tax office system impenetrable seems decidedly stupid.