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

I'm struggling to understand why, on the one hand, the government wants to take such an extended period of time to work on a recommendation to put back in place something that previously existed but doesn't require any consultation or time whatsoever to remove people's human rights and go against the rule of law with schedule 5. That seems to be somewhat hypocritical. My understanding is that the last Minister for Social Services had amendments or legislation drafted to reinstate the six-year debt limit on debt recovery but it wasn't brought to the parliament. Minister, how much longer is the government going to require people on income support to wait before this recommendation of the royal commission is implemented? I know you've said that debts are going to be waived, but we still have a situation where, again, people on welfare are being treated differently to everyone else in our community. There is no other area of law where people can recover debts beyond six years. We have a statute of limitation for a reason, and yet the most vulnerable in our community, people on income support, are being told to wait. How much longer, Minister, will they have to wait?

Progress reported.