House debates

Monday, 30 November 2020

Questions without Notice

Pensions and Benefits

2:51 pm

Photo of Bill ShortenBill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Government Services. Can the minister confirm that the government received 14 official reports of robodebt victims threatening self-harm on the following dates: in 2017, 7 January; 13 July; 1, 8, 28 and 30 August; 6, 23 and 26 October; and 6 November; and, in 2018, 7 August; 24 September; 6 November; and 11 December?

2:52 pm

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

As I said to the member, I'll get the data to him because I don't have the data on hand. But I make the point that our agency deals with many of these issues on a daily basis. Last week I was in Toowoomba visiting the Toowoomba service centre, and my entrance on that day was delayed because of a domestic violence incident inside. We have a system built just to record instances that my agency deals with of self-harm, challenges and violent behaviour to the point now that, at the entrances to all Services Australia shopfronts, we now have security guards, because we take the duty of care to both the citizens of Australia and our staff quite seriously. These are complex areas and they're complex matters. We deal with complex situations right across all of our 327 service centres. I'll most certainly get for the member the data that he has requested, but it's important that the House understands the challenge that Services Australia staff deal with, which is why I started my answer to the very first question from the Leader of the Opposition by thanking the hardworking men and women of Services Australia because they deal with difficult circumstances every day.