Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

(1) Clause 2, page 2 (after table item 4), insert:

(2) Schedule 2, page 29 (after line 23), at the end of the Schedule, add:

Part 4 — Time limit on debt recovery

Division 1 — Amendments

A New Tax System (Family Assistance) (Administration) Act 1999

15 Section 93B

Repeal the section, substitute:

93B Time limit on debt recovery

For the purposes of this Part, legal proceedings, or any action under a provision of this Part, for the recovery of a debt may not be commenced after the period of 6 years starting on the day that the circumstances that gave rise to the debt first existed.

Paid Parental Leave Act 2010

16 Section 192A

Repeal the section, substitute:

192A Time limit on debt recovery

For the purposes of this Part, legal proceedings, or any action under a provision of this Part, for the recovery of a debt may not be commenced after the period of 6 years starting on the day that the circumstances that gave rise to the debt first existed.

Social Security Act 1991

17 Section 1234B

Repeal the section, substitute:

1234B Time limit on debt recovery

For the purposes of this Chapter, legal proceedings, or any action under a provision of this Chapter, for the recovery of a debt may not be commenced after the period of 6 years starting on the day that the circumstances that gave rise to the debt first existed.

Student Assistance Act 1973

18 Section 42B

Repeal the section, substitute:

42B Time limit on debt recovery

For the purposes of this Part, legal proceedings, or any action under a provision of this Part, for the recovery of a debt may not be commenced after the period of 6 years starting on the day that the circumstances that gave rise to the debt first existed.

Division 2 — Application of amendments

19 Application of amendments

The amendments made by this Part apply in relation to a debt that is raised, before, on or after this item commences.

One of the most significant and impactful recommendations made in the robodebt royal commission was recommendation 18.2. That recommendation called for the government to reinstate the limitation of six years on debt recovery. Further details of the recommendation in the royal commission's report note that the six-year limit on debt recovery was caused by a repeal of the relevant subsections by the Budget Savings (Omnibus) Act 2016, and that I quote:

There is no reason that current and former social security recipients should be on any different footing from other debtors.

We know that there are people who have received income support, sometimes decades ago, who live in fear that at some point in their future, they will receive a debt notice because there is no limitation on debt recovery. They live in fear that they're going to receive a debt notice from a department that we know has a history of unlawfully raising debts. The government says that it needs to further consider the implementation of this recommendation, but it's now been two years since the release of the robodebt royal commission, which begs the question: how much more time does the government require to consider these changes? We have a situation where we were told yesterday that the government has recently received advice that means it needs to rush through schedule 5 without inquiry and yet the government has had over two years to introduce a six-year limitation on debt recovery, which was a key recommendation of the robodebt royal commission. Minister, how much more time does the government require to implement this very important recommendation of the robodebt royal commission?