Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Amendment (Waiver of Debt and Act of Grace Payments) Bill 2019. This bill seeks to improve transparency and accountability in relation to the granting of debt waivers and act of grace payments of and by the federal government. The government's power to provide these forms of discretionary financial assistance arises from the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013, otherwise known as the PGPA Act. The PGPA Act was introduced by Labor—by Senator Wong as finance minister—when we were last in government. It replaced legislation that had been in place since the 1990s, and it was designed to establish the framework necessary for a modern Public Service.

I would first like to go to the issue of debt waivers. Section 63 of the PGPA Act authorises the finance minister to waive a debt owing to the Commonwealth. A waiver extinguishes that debt, meaning that the Commonwealth cannot pursue it at a later date. These debts relate to non-corporate Commonwealth entities like the Australian Taxation Office and Centrelink. Waivers are granted where the decision-maker thinks that recovering the debt would be inequitable or cause ongoing financial hardship and that other debt treatment options are not appropriate. Finance officials can make decisions on debts below $100,000, while the minister decides on debts above $100,000. The finance department says financial hardship would exist where payment of the debt would leave someone unable to provide food, accommodation, clothing, medical treatment, education or other necessities for themselves, their families or other people for whom they are responsible.

In respect of the act of grace payments, the PGPA Act also provides the finance minister with the power to provide an act of grace payment. Section 65 of the act authorises the minister to make payments to a person if they consider it to be appropriate in special circumstances. These circumstances are not defined in the act, but the finance department cites examples such as where a non-corporate Commonwealth entity has taken action or failed to take action which has caused an unintended and inequitable result for someone or where the Commonwealth legislation or policy has an unintended anomalous, inequitable or otherwise unacceptable impact on someone. The provision of an act of grace payment is discretionary, as are waivers of debt.

So what will this bill do? The bill would require the Department of Finance to report in its annual report on the number of debt waivers made during the period the annual report covers; the total dollar amount that was waived as a result of the debt waivers; the number of act of grace payments made during an annual report period; and the total dollar amount that was paid as a result of those act of grace payments. Reporting would not include the names, so individuals' and organisations' privacies would continue to be protected.

There is currently no automatic mechanism for the reporting of this information. Last year, the government released a document, which is now available on the finance department website, showing, firstly, the number of debt waivers and act of grace payments approved and, secondly, the total dollar value of those waivers and payments for five financial years. The opposition would like to think that our constant and ongoing push for increased transparency and accountability might have helped push the government into releasing this information. We believe it's crucial to make this level of transparency a requirement that is set down in law. Why is it so important? Transparency and accountability around the spending of taxpayers' money is always important—of course, you wouldn't know it under this Morrison government—and it's particularly the case when decisions around granting act of grace payments or waiving debts are made in a totally discretionary fashion by a minister or their Public Service delegate. Now, more than ever before, these steps are crucial, given the Morrison government's appalling track record in accountability.

Senator Gallagher, who has introduced this bill, has also introduced an antirorting bill, which is designed to increase the transparency around grants programs. The Morrison government is addicted to rorting grants programs, Madam Acting Deputy President Brown, as I'm sure you know. You've seen it firsthand. There are so many examples that I don't have time to go through all of them, but there is an ever-growing lowlights list. I'd like to draw your attention to some of them. Sports rorts is one I am quite familiar with, of course—the colour-coded documents that flicked between the minister and the Prime Minister's office in the dying days of the last parliament. On that occasion, we saw industrial-scale rorting of public money, taxpayers' money.