Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. The government rejects the premise of the Leader of the Opposition's question. But it is important the government put on the record exactly what we do know. We know that the use of averaged income data was widely used from 1994, under the Keating government. We know that, and we know that because yesterday I tabled not just an individual letter sent to a citizen but also the actual letter template that was pulled out of the ISIS mainframe and was widely used. We know it's been going on for at least 26 years, and, anecdotally, the use of averaged income data from taxation goes back further. What we know from that individual letter and from the form letter is that, from the Keating government onwards, letters were sent saying, 'If you don't engage with the department, averaged income data will be used and a bill will be sent.' We know that. It's not a question that's open. It's not an assertion. It's a fact. We know that—for 26 years. We know that from the work we've done to understand how far back this went.

We know that, in 2009, 16.8 per cent of reviews were done solely or partially using averaging. We know that, from 2011, when the member for Sydney was the minister, 24.4 per cent were used solely for averaging. Let's look at what else we know. In the budget 2009-10, on page 330 of Budget Paper No. 2—

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