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

As I announced on 19 November last year, the government came to the conclusion that a process that had been going for three decades lacked sufficiency. Therefore, the government responded. The government's data goes back—in terms of computing power—to 2015. Hence, we were able to provide refunds to Australians because our data went back to 2015, and we responded because of a lack of sufficiency. Hence, to date, we have paid back $707.3 million in refunds to 406,672 people. But considering the use of averaged income data has been going back for two or three decades, Australians always have the right to seek for their debts to be reviewed at any time. If there are Australians who believe that their debt going back that amount of time was raised solely or partially, and can demonstrate that, they should come to Services Australia and ask for a review. It was on that basis, after three decades, that the government reached the point of the lack of sufficiency and acted lawfully.

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