· In short: A speech writer has been hired for government minister Bill Shorten, and will be paid about $600,000 over two years. 

· Services Australia says it has the capability to provide speech writing support from within its department.

· What's next? Services Australia has been asked to explain who proposed the contract and what the terms of the contract are.

A speechwriter will be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars over two years to assist government minister Bill Shorten, despite Services Australia saying it initially had the capacity to provide help.

Services Australia confirmed Julianne Stewart secured a government contract worth about $300,000 a year that is set to run for two years.

Ms Stewart's LinkedIn profile states her role is to provide "contract speechwriting services to Services Australia and the Hon Bill Shorten" who is the minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme and the government services minister.

Her salary is significantly higher than what most senior speechwriters in the department earn, which is about $140,000 a year.

Services Australia deputy chief executive officer Susie Smith was questioned by Liberal senator Maria Kovacic about why an additional person had to be hired.

"Do you have the capability within that team to deliver?" Ms Kovacic asked.

"We do have the capability, I think it comes down to a question of choice … we have speechwriters as part of our communications capability, yes," Ms Smith said.

There are 201 media and communication staff members currently employed by Services Australia, two of whom are speechwriters. Services Australia officials confirmed its staff had not written any speeches for Mr Shorten in the past 12 months.

The office of Mr Shorten referred the ABC's questions to the department.

Value for money questioned

Liberal senator Linda Reynolds used Senate estimates to question why Mr Shorten's office hired additional staff, but the department couldn't provide answers.

"Do you know why this extra $600,000 contract was needed to supplement his own staff?" Senator Reynolds asked.

"No I can't answer that," Ms Smith said.

Ms Smith could not confirm if the contract was proposed by Mr Shorten's office or Services Australia, but clarified that Ms Stewart had been tasked to write speeches for Mr Shorten across his different portfolios. She also commutes between Sydney and Canberra for the role.

Senator Reynolds pushed the department on whether it was appropriate to spend money on hiring an additional speechwriter.

"When Services Australia who is paying for this contract is keeping people waiting increasingly longer for crisis payments, for aged care payments, do you think this use of taxpayer's money for an extra speechwriter … do you think that is appropriate, did you push back on this contract?" she asked Ms Smith.

"I think you are asking me for a matter of opinion and I don't have an opinion about this," Ms Smith said.

Ms Stewart's LinkedIn profile paints a picture of a highly qualified speechwriter who has provided assistance to four prime ministers, including Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull.

She also assisted Alan Joyce when he was the CEO of Qantas and was the principal speechwriter to the vice-chancellor of the University of New South Wales.

Before entering the corporate world and politics, Ms Stewart wrote scripts for Australian drama shows such as Sons and Daughters and A Country Practice.

"I think Australians would love to know why you are spending this much money when it could be far better used in additional staff to process people's claims," Senator Reynolds said.

Clarification provided by Services Australia

Despite Ms Smith not being able to initially provide detail around the hiring of Ms Stewart, she later provided further information about how the contract came about.

The AusTender contract stated the value over two years was $620,499. Ms Smith said 20 months into the contract $447, 516 had been paid, which also covered superannuation, sick and holiday leave. Travel costs would be an additional cost.

However, a spokesman for Services Australia later told the ABC that figure did not include super or leave entitlements.

Ms Smith said the department had not been able to find a suitable speechwriter. As a result, the department looked to hire someone at market rate, which is higher than what is offered to public servants at around $140,000.

Ms Smith described the decision to hire Ms Smith as a "direct source contract" but wouldn't say who made that final decision.

"Speechwriting, as you will appreciate, is a specialised skill set, and accomplished and available speechwriters remain difficult to source," she said.

Ms Smith clarified her earlier evidence that while the department now has speechwriters as part of their communication team, there were none at the time of hiring of Ms Stewart, who is also tasked with training staff within the department on speechwriting.

Backlog of claims

The estimates committee also received an update on long waits within Services Australia.

Earlier this year there were 1.35 million social security and health claims that had not been processed.

The backlog has since reduced to 607,000. The department said that was mainly due to the hiring of an additional 5,000 staff.

People calling Services Australia are still waiting about 25 minutes to speak to someone on the phone, but the wait time is slightly lower than the average 33 minutes in February.

However, there are still a number of people that are receiving an automated message before the call ends.

Services Australia said it was hanging up on fewer people declaring its use of "congestion messaging" had halved since January. 

In May, there were nearly 125,000 calls that went unanswered in one week.

On average it is currently taking 83 days to process an age pension.