Centrelink call wait time quirk explained

Have you ever wondered how Centrelink's average call wait times are so low, despite regular accounts of people languishing on hold with the welfare agency?

If a call is answered, and then transferred to another operator, the wait time is wound back to zero.

"A transfer to a new line becomes a new inquiry, and as such, the clock would start again," Human Services staffer Barry Jackson told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra on Thursday.

"It becomes a new call coming into the system."