Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Technical Changes No. 2) Bill 2025. It is a bill grounded in two of Labor's most enduring values—dignity and fairness. Those values are at the heart of why Australians built a social security system in the first place: to make sure that, when life takes an unprecedented turn, no-one is left without help.

The Albanese Labor government believes that dignity should never depend on circumstances. Whether it's a job loss, illness, caring responsibilities or simply bad luck, every Australian deserves a system that treats them with respect. This bill is about restoring that respect. It fixes longstanding flaws in the way our social security debts are managed and strengthens protections for those who have been harmed by coercion and financial abuse. It draws a clear line under the mistakes of the past and builds a fairer foundation for the future.

Before I get into the detail, I want to pause to reflect on what this means in human terms. When we talk about debts or income apportionment, it can sound dry or bureaucratic, but, for the people affected, these are not abstract concepts. They are letters that arrive unannounced, phone calls from private numbers and sleepless nights spent worrying about how to pay back money they should never have owed. In my own state of Tasmania I've spoken to people who still feel anxious every time they see an unknown phone number on their phone, because they've lived through years of being chased over minor or mistaken debts. Many were older Tasmanians, carers, or people living with disability, who'd done their best to comply with complex rules that even experts struggle to understand. That is why dignity matters. When bureaucracy forgets compassion, real people suffer. This bill ensures that that never happens again.

We all remember the harm caused by the unlawful robodebt scheme. It was a national disgrace, a cruel policy, that replaced fairness with automation and compassion with indifference. The Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme made that clear. It was not just a technical failure; it was a moral one. Our government accepted, or accepted in principle, all 56 of the commission's recommendations. Seventy-five per cent are already implemented or well progressed. We ended the use of external debt collectors; strengthened oversight within Services Australia; and placed dignity, transparency and respect at the centre of service delivery. This bill continues that work. It delivers on recommendation 18.1 of the royal commission report, which says that debt administration must be ethical, proportionate and focused on the needs of individuals. It ensures that we learn from the mistakes of the past and that 'never again' is not just a slogan but a commitment written into law.

The first major reform in this bill is the overhaul of how small debts are managed. Until now, the threshold for automatically waiving a small debt was just $50—a figure set more than 30 years ago and never indexed. In today's terms, it's meant that Services Australia could spend more to recover a $70 debt than the debt was worth. Under this bill the threshold rises to $250 and, for the first time, will be indexed annually to the CPI. That change alone will make a tangible difference. Around 1.2 million small or undetermined debts will be waived or never raised in 2025-26. That means that 1.2 million Australians—many of them low-income earners or single parents—will no longer face unnecessary stress or anxiety over trivial amounts. This reform is not about letting anyone off the hook. Fraud protections remain. It's about recognising common sense—that chasing small, accidental debts helps no-one. It's about using taxpayers' money responsibly while treating people decently.

The bill also expands the special circumstances waiver, giving Services Australia the discretion to waive debts in cases involving coercion, family violence or financial abuse. This matters deeply. For too long, women fleeing violent partners have found themselves burdened with debts that were not theirs to begin with—debts incurred because a perpetrator manipulated their finances, accessed their online accounts or forced them to make false declarations under threat. These reforms say clearly that survivors of financial abuse should not be punished by the very system meant to protect them.

Alongside fairness, this bill also includes a measure to strengthen community safety, with the introduction of the benefit restriction notice. This change allows, in limited and serious circumstances, for payments or concession cards to be suspended when a person is subject to an outstanding arrest warrant for a serious violent or sexual offence and is actively evading police. This is not about punishing poverty or policing disadvantage; it's about ensuring taxpayer funded benefits are not supported for those who pose a risk to the safety of others. The process is tightly controlled. A benefit restriction notice can only be issued on request from a senior police officer and with the authorisation of the minister responsible for the Australian Federal Police. The Minister for Social Services must also consider the likely effect on any dependants before approving a notice. These safeguards mean that compassion and safety work hand in hand. It is a rare power, expected to be used only in exceptional cases, but an important one to protect the integrity of the system and the safety of the community.

Another key reform in this bill addresses the longstanding issue of income apportionment. Between 1991 and 2020, Services Australia and its predecessors used a method of spreading reported income across multiple fortnights when calculating entitlements. The intention was to be fair to recipients whose pay cycles did not line up neatly with Centrelink reporting periods, but, as the full Federal Court confirmed in the case of Chaplin v Department of Social Services, the method was inconsistent with the law as written. Our government has never used income apportionment, but, as the government responsible for restoring integrity to the system, we must resolve the legacy issues it created. Without legislative certainty, millions of old cases—some dating back more than 20 years—could be reopened, causing chaos and distress for people who believed their debts were long settled.

This bill retrospectively validates the old calculations to provide legal certainty, while at the same time recognising that some people may have repaid debts they should not have. To address that, the Income Apportionment Resolution Scheme will offer payments of up to $600 to those affected between 2003 and 2020. Economic Justice Australia and ACOSS will receive funding to help people navigate the process. It is a balanced and compassionate solution, acknowledging a genuine administrative mistake without reigniting trauma or diverting scarce resources from the frontline.

Tasmania has one of the highest rates of social security reliance in the country. In some suburbs of Hobart and Launceston, more than one in three households receive some form of income support. When debt rules are unfair or inflexible, the impact lands hardest on small communities like ours. In Glenorchy and Moonah, I have met parents juggling part-time work, studying and caring responsibilities. A missed pay slip or a delay in reporting an income can easily lead to an accidental overpayment. For families already counting every dollar, even a small debt notice can cause enormous worry. By lifting the waiver threshold, this bill gives those families breathing space. It allows Services Australia staff to focus on helping people find work or access training, rather than on processing minor debt adjustments.

The expansion of the special circumstances waiver also means that Tasmanian women escaping violence—those supported by services like the Hobart Women's Shelter or Women's Legal Service Tasmania—will have better protection against being left with debts tied to abusive relationships. By establishing the benefit restriction notice regime, the bill gives our police the tools they need to act when somebody wanted for serious violent or sexual offences is avoiding arrest while still claiming Commonwealth payments. That is about keeping communities safe. In short, this legislation delivers fairness for those who need help, accountability for those who seek to exploit the system, and peace of mind for the vast majority who do the right thing.

At its core, this bill asks a simple question: what kind of government, what kind of country, do we choose to be? On election night earlier this year, the Prime Minister said that Australians had voted for Australian values of fairness, aspiration and opportunity for all. He said we are a country that shows 'courage in adversity and kindness to those in need'. He said that, in uncertain times, Australians chose to look after each other while building for the future. That is exactly what this bill does. This bill is about making sure no-one is held back and no-one is left behind. It's about recognising that people are doing it tough and that many are under pressure and about answering that with practical help instead of judgment. It's about a government that does not walk past hardship and pretend it is a personal failure. It's about a government that sees dignity as a right not a reward.

Kindness is not a weakness. It is a deliberate act of fairness. It is building a system that understands that life is complicated, that people make mistakes, that sometimes people are put in impossible situations and that their government should respond with respect instead of punishment. This legislation puts that into practice. It makes debt recovery more humane. It protects people, especially women, from financial abuse. It wipes small accidental debts instead of chasing people for sums that are barely enough to cover groceries. It keeps the community safe by still considering the impact on dependants. It balances accountability with empathy, safety with fairness and administration with humanity. This bill closes a chapter in the history of our social security system and opens a new one defined by fairness, transparency and respect. It says to every Australian who has ever needed help, 'Your dignity matters.' It says to every public servant tasked with administering payments, 'We trust your compassion and judgement.' It says to every community across the country, 'The safety net will be there when it is needed, run with humanity and care.'

In the wake of robodebt, Australians demanded their government do better. This legislation is one more way where we're keeping that promise, because government should never be about catching people out. It should be about lifting people up. That is the choice we make every day as a Labor government. It is the choice to govern with decency, with fairness and with kindness. I commend the bill to the Senate.