Scott Ryan (Victoria, Liberal Party, Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

Senator—through you, Mr President—what you call needless harassment I will say is defending the interests of taxpayers and the recipients of other payments. Let us go to facts that became clear when people in instances provided by the Labor Party were found to owe debts to the Commonwealth. Instances that were provided by the shadow minister were found to relate to people who owed funds to the Commonwealth. Unless the Labor Party are repudiating the automated data-matching program that began under Mr Shorten and Ms Plibersek, which I do not think they are, they are basically saying that we should not be pursuing inconsistency in data provided by payment recipients and taxpayers. Are they saying we should not be pursuing overpayments in the interests of Australian taxpayers? I think Australian taxpayers and citizens would profoundly disagree with that.