Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I would be grateful if the honourable member would provide me with the details of his constituent's situation, and we will examine that in the same way the Minister for Human Services has examined the instance that was raised yesterday. I want to say to the honourable member, and to all honourable members, that our focus is on defending hardworking Australian families as they seek to get ahead. What we are presenting in our childcare package is affordable and available child care that will benefit a million Australians directly—Australians on lower and lower-middle incomes.

What we are doing with Centrelink, as the honourable member knows, is seeking to ensure that, for those who owe money to Centrelink through error or whatever, we are able to recover it. We do not seek to attribute any blame; we are simply raising discrepancies and asking people to respond to them. The minister dealt with, in good faith, the matter that the member for Barton raised with the House yesterday, and what was abundantly clear was that those circumstances were the result of human error, not the result of any computerised process. Human error always occurs, and the matter has been corrected. We are determined to ensure that the social welfare system is, above all, fair, and that we get the best outcomes for our social welfare investment.

Mr Gosling interjecting—

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