Claire Clutterham (Sturt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'll just start by acknowledging the contribution of my friend the member for Forde, who spoke before the member for Kooyong, and thank him for his courage in sharing the moving and horrific story of Jarrad, which illustrates the significant harm that was caused to Australians through the robodebt scheme. As we heard from the member for Forde, some of that harm cannot be undone. Lives were lost or destroyed because of robodebt. To say it was a gross failure of public administration is an understatement. It was a catastrophic failure. Its design and implementation meant it was always going to be a failure because of the lens through which it was created. It always considered the social safety net to be a problematic burden, a burden on the economy and something to be eliminated. It also always considered those who used the social safety net to be rorters—people who were lazy, actively avoiding work and looking to take advantage of public funds just because they could, like new mothers, who were accused of being 'double dippers'. People using the broad social safety net in this country and who were victims of robodebt were treated like criminals.

Budget control and debt reduction are important, but there are ways to achieve this without grouping together individual Australians using the social safety net under the umbrella of 'rorters', 'dodgy welfare recipients' or 'bludgers'. Finding savings in the budget doesn't have to exclusively mean cutting services, reducing support and targeting vulnerable Australians in the hope that they lack sufficient agency and resources to challenge what has happened to them. That is what robodebt did. It was lazy budget control—'No other ideas to reform the budget? No problem. Vulnerable Australians are available.' Robodebt found a group of vulnerable people that were considered easy targets, and the architects of the scheme hoped that they wouldn't say anything or speak up. Now we know that some of them can no longer speak up because they are no longer with us. People's lives have been destroyed, in many cases irreparably. The human impacts of robodebt look like this—families struggling to make ends meet receiving a debt notice at Christmas, young people being driven to despair by demands for payment and, horribly, the account of a young man's suicide. This can never happen again and, thanks to many stakeholders, but especially the countless victims who tirelessly advocated for themselves and others, it won't.

The reality is that the social safety net is designed to provide a basic level of financial and social support to individuals and families in need, helping to alleviate poverty and prevent economic hardship. Social safety nets play a critical part in reducing income inequality by helping to ensure a minimum standard of living for low-income individuals and families. An effective social safety net can help to break the poverty trap by providing resources and support to individuals and families, enabling them to access opportunities and improve their economic situation, because, even in this great and successful country, not everyone has the same opportunity to contribute, to access paid work or to work as much as they want to. Illness, disability, accidents or acting as a carer for others—things no-one wishes for—sometimes intervene to limit the contribution an individual can make. Sometimes it's simply a case of lightning striking, meaning that access to a fair and effective social safety net is critically important.

It's also important, however, to strike that balance between the optimal level of government intervention to provide support and the promotion of agency and individual self-reliance. But seeking help when help is genuinely needed is not rorting, is not dodgy; it's the human story. As the royal commission found, robodebt was a crude and cruel mechanism, neither fair nor legal, and it made many people feel like criminals. In essence, people were traumatised on the off-chance that they might owe money. It was a costly failure of public administration in both human and economic terms.

From 2016 to 2019, the robodebt scheme raised more than half a million inaccurate Centrelink debts through a method of income averaging, which has since been ruled unlawful. Debts were imposed on Australians who then had to prove that they didn't owe them. This required them to hunt down old payslips and bank statements, which was a time-consuming and stressful process, rife with confusion and anxiety—heightened when Centrelink sent debt collectors or garnished their payments without their knowledge. Beyond the burden of repaying debts, the scheme caused an incalculable amount of stress and hardship for thousands of Australians, created by a government system that was meant to support and protect them.

Following the royal commission into the robodebt scheme, the Albanese Labor government accepted all 56 of the royal commission's recommendations for reform and has so far implemented 52 of them, with the implementation of the final four underway and noting that three remaining recommendations require legislative reform. One of the recommendations from the report of the royal commission touched on the effects of robodebt on individuals and recommended that policies and processes under the auspices of Services Australia have a primary emphasis on the recipients the services are meant to support. This recommendation speaks to the human element of needing support, including the need to avoid language and conduct that reinforces feelings of stigma and shame associated with the receipt of government support when it is needed, including explaining processes clearly and in plan language and taking all practicable steps to avoid the possibility that interactions with the government might exacerbate those stresses or introduce new ones. The Albanese governments 'tell us once' policy is, for example, designed to streamline government interactions for individuals who are accessing the social safety net.

Other critical recommendations include having improved and clear dispute resolution and complaint processes so that affected individuals understand the decisions being made and have a much greater awareness of their rights and how to activate them, with Services Australia now required to refer them to adequately resourced legal and non-legal services as necessary and also to financial counsellors and community legal centres and legal aid commissions.

Another recommendation was having Services Australia staff, including executive staff, trained in and spending time in frontline roles so they can interact with vulnerable Australians and gain a greater appreciation of the social safety net and why people access it—the human stories. This was another key recommendation because, for a system to work fairly, it must be accurate and adequately resourced with properly trained staff and high-quality services that are responsive to an individual's need. 'Computer says no' must not be the default way every time.

Improved safeguards, transparency and oversight must keep the social security system in check and include human led oversight mechanisms for any automated decision-making processes. This is because humans are unique. Their needs are unique. Recognising and reflecting this is critical to ensuring the fairness and adequacy of services, because, if services are provided but they are inadequate or not appropriately tailored, then they don't advance, improve or eliminate the adverse position of the affected individual. It leads to repeat inquiries, the use of duplicate resources and, ultimately, more unnecessary cost to the Australian taxpayer.

Finally, the government has also reached agreement on what will be the largest class action settlement in Australian history if approved by the Federal Court. This would see the Commonwealth pay $475 million as compensation for the harms caused by the robodebt scheme. The size of this settlement reflects the harm caused to vulnerable Australians by the heartless and disastrous policies of the former Liberal government. It is not only a reflection of the Albanese Labor government's determination to address the harms caused by the robodebt scheme but an illustration of this government's approach to integrity and transparency with respect to the provision of public services.

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