Print2.2.2 Telephone interpreting
Objective
This component provides for a national 24 hours a day, seven days a week, telephone interpreting service to enable accessible, quality communication between English and migrant languages to individuals (migrants and others) and to government and non-government service deliverers.
Description
The Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS) provides facilities that allow for a three-way conversation between English speaking and non-English speaking parties and a TIS interpreter through the use of a national telephone number—131 450. TIS also provides priority lines for emergency services and medical practitioners.
Performance
During 2007–08, 615 477 telephone interpreting services were provided by the TIS National contact centre, an annual increase of 11 per cent for the second consecutive year.
This strong growth has occurred despite annual increases in service charges linked to the consumer price index.
Reasons for the growth in interpreting demand include a growing community expectation and increasing commercial realisation that both public and private sector organisations, as part of their client service, should make interpreting services available to their clients.
As a result of the high demand for interpreting services and congestion during peak periods, the number of calls answered within 30 seconds by a TIS operator remained at 84 per cent for the third consecutive year, which is below the 90 per cent target. Nevertheless, 90 per cent of callers were connected to an interpreter within three minutes, which is within the performance target.
Due to an increase in the demand for interpreting services in some recently introduced community languages and dialects, for which recognition or accreditation by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) is not readily available, 88 per cent of interpreting tasks were completed by NAATI accredited or recognised interpreters. This is below the target of 90 per cent. TIS National is seeking to rectify this by encouraging members of the interpreting panel to obtain NAATI accreditation or recognition, and by engaging with industry stakeholders to recruit further accredited interpreters.
The 10 languages most in demand were (in descending order): Mandarin, Arabic, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Korean, Persian, Turkish, Spanish, Serbian and Greek.
Table 74: Telephone interpreting—performance information| Measures | Results | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005–06 | 2006–07 | 2007–08 | |
| Quality | |||
| 90 per cent of telephone calls will be answered by a TIS operator within 30 seconds | 84% |
84% |
84% |
| 90 per cent of calls will result in a telephone interpreter in a major community language provided within 3 minutes | 91% |
92% |
90% |
| 90 per cent of telephone interpreter jobs will be done by a NAATI accredited/recognised interpreter | 91% |
90% |
88% |
| Quantity | |||
| 460 000 telephone interpreting services1 | 501 000 |
556 136 |
615 477 |
- The measure relates to the 2007–08 financial year (measures varied in previous years).
