Jo Briskey (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

A game changer—that's how Economic Justice Australia described the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Technical Changes No. 2) Bill 2025. It's a reform that will make our social security system fairer, simpler and more humane. At its heart, this is about people. It's about respect, dignity and decency—values that sit at the centre of Labor's purpose.

For too long, too many Australians have faced unnecessary stress, confusion and, at times, outright injustice through the way our social security debts have been managed. This bill is about fixing those longstanding problems. It reforms how we treat small debts, strengthens protections for survivors of financial abuse and, finally, resolves the decades-old issue of income apportionment once and for all. Taken together, these reforms will wipe away nearly half of the undetermined social security debt backlog, simplify debt management for the future and ensure Services Australia can focus on what matters most: helping people who need support.

Our social security system speaks to who we are as Australians—a fair and compassionate people who believe in lending a hand to those who need it, without judgement. It exists to uphold dignity, not diminish it, yet for too long a flawed system has too often done the opposite. Outdated rules like income apportionment and absurdly low thresholds for small debts have caused needless hardship. This bill recognises that reality and takes decisive action to put things right. The small debt waiver has existed since the nineties, but since its introduction the threshold has remained frozen at $50—not indexed, not adjusted, just stuck. Meanwhile, government payments have tripled in value since 1993. What was once small three decades ago is no longer small today. The result? Services Australia has spent countless hours chasing debts of $50, $70 or $100, sometimes spending more to recover the debt than the value of debt itself. It's wasteful, it's wrong and it causes real harm. Imagine a single parent from Airport West receiving a letter from Services Australia demanding repayment of $75. They've done their best to report every shift, every hour and every payslip, but a small timing error has triggered the debt. That $75 might mean a skipped meal, missed medication or not being able to pay the electricity bill that fortnight. That's not a fair system; that's a failure of compassion. This bill fixes that.

We are lifting the threshold from $50 to $250. That means that in 2025-26 around 1.2 million undetermined debts will be waived—will never need to be raised in the first place—and 1.2 million Australians will be spared needless anxiety. That's 1.2 million administrative processes removed from the system, and a public service freed up to focus on people, not paperwork. Let me be clear: this is not about letting bad actors off the hook. We are maintaining all safeguards against fraud and deliberate misuse, but what we are saying, and saying clearly, is that the vast majority of people that interact with this system do so in good faith. They deserve a system that treats them with fairness, respect and dignity. This is what responsible government looks like: maintaining compassion with fiscal responsibility. As the Prime Minister has said, kindness is an Australian value, and our government reflects that value in action.

We know that family and domestic violence remains one of the greatest challenges our nation faces. Within that, financial abuse and coercive control are among the most common and devastating forms of harm. Too often, perpetrators weaponise systems—banking, tax and, yes, social security—to entrap their partners. Right now, the law doesn't adequately allow Services Australia to waive debts incurred through coercion or financial abuse. If an abuser-partner forces someone to sign forms, to provide false information or to hide income, that victim can end up carrying a debt that isn't truly theirs. That's cruel, double punishment; it's abuse followed by bureaucracy.

This bill changes that. It gives Services Australia explicit power to waive debts in cases where coercion, control or financial abuse are at play. When an officer considers whether someone knowingly made a false statement, they must take into account the context of coercion or abuse. This reform directly responds to the 2024 joint parliamentary inquiry into financial abuse. It aligns with our national plan to end violence against women and children, and it delivers our commitment to embed safety in Commonwealth systems.

We're not stopping here. The government is consulting on further reforms to ensure that perpetrators, not victims, are held accountable for debts incurred through abuse. This bill is a crucial first step, but it is not the last. For too long, government systems have unwittingly reinforced abuse. This bill begins to undo that.

From 1991 until 2020, Services Australia used a method known as income apportionment. When someone submitted payslips without daily breakdowns, Services Australia would spread their income over multiple fortnights to calculate eligibility. The intent was practical, but the practice was inconsistent with law. It should never have been used that way. To be clear, this government ended income apportionment, but millions of historical debts were calculated by using it.

While we cannot foreseeably reopen every case spanning decades, repayments and even deceased recipients, we can bring legal certainty and moral resolution. That's what this bill does. It provides legal clarity to settle the issue, and it creates the Income Apportionment Resolution Scheme to deliver fairness. Under the scheme, people with debts raised between 1 September 2003 and 6 December 2020 can apply for a resolution payment of up to $600, depending on their case. This isn't about compensation for its own sake; it's about acknowledging error—acknowledging that the system got it wrong and giving people closure. To ensure accessibility, the government will support Economic Justice Australia and ACOSS to assist people through this process. Through this scheme, we can provide recognition without reopening old wounds.

One of the clearest lessons from the robodebt royal commission is that governments must never again create or tolerate systems that lack legality, compassion or accountability. Robodebt was different to income apportionment, but the warning is the same. When governments prioritise debt recovery over fairness, they lose sight of their purpose. When flawed methods replace sound judgement, when people are treated as numbers and when harm is dismissed as collateral, trust in government erodes. Trust, once lost, is hard to rebuild. This bill helps rebuild that trust. It brings clarity, it delivers fairness, and it puts compassion back where it belongs—at the heart of public administration.

These reforms will touch the lives of millions, including many in my electorate of Maribyrnong. They will mean that single parents juggling jobs and care won't face the stress of small debts for honest mistakes. Students and apprentices working casual shifts won't be penalised for income mismatches. Pensioners taking on a few hours of work won't lose their dignity over a $100 notice. People with disability will be able to navigate the system without fear of bureaucratic penalty. And victims-survivors of family violence will finally have laws that protect them, not punish them. That is fairness in action. That's government doing what it should: helping people to live with dignity.

These reforms are modest but meaningful. The $250 threshold is practical. Fraud safeguards remain strong. Fiscal discipline remains firm. What changes is the spirit in which this system operates. We're saying that we will not punish honesty. We will not waste dollars chasing cents. We will not allow old, unjust systems to persist simply because they were complicated to fix, because that's not fairness, and it's not government at its best. Government at its best is a force for good. It uses the levers of government to make people's lives better, fairer and kinder. That's what this bill does. It corrects historic wrongs, it reduces stress and red tape, it protects those who've experienced abuse, and it helps rebuild public trust in the system designed to serve us all.

Labor has always believed in a safety net that gives dignity, not despair—a hand up, not a put-down. For too long, these outdated practices stood in the way of that principle. Today we are putting fairness back where it belongs. This bill is fiscally responsible, socially just and morally right. It honours our commitment to women's safety and gender equality. It reflects our values of kindness, fairness and accountability. And it restores dignity to a system that millions of Australians rely on.

For decades, Australians have had to put up with a debt management system that too often has treated them as case numbers instead of people—treated them without dignity. Enough is enough. This is a bill about justice, compassion and common sense. It's about government working for people, not against them. I commend the bill to the House.

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