Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

'Embarrassed' and 'humiliated'—these are the words that Minister Shorten rightly chooses to describe how the opposition should feel about its cruel, vicious and disgusting conduct in going after our nation's most vulnerable citizens, as set out in the damning final report of the robodebt royal commission. The report confirmed the worst of what we all suspected: robodebt was a scheme created to deliberately hurt those doing it the toughest, fuelled by an underlying hatred of welfare recipients and allowed to continue due to the culture of ineptitude, incompetence and indifference of the former Liberal government and the most senior public servants. I sat in estimates hearing after estimates hearing and heard public servants and ministers defending robodebt. As we now know, that Liberal government abdicated its most basic duty of responsibility. It was disastrous, and that is how they will be remembered by over half a million Australians, many of them at the lowest point in their lives. The sheer brutality and senselessness of this operation left its mark on countless vulnerable Australians and their communities, instigating widespread misery and despair and pointless financial struggle.

Those opposite have never experienced what it's like to have to rely on government benefits. People are at the lowest ebb of their life. Those opposite don't understand the circumstances by which people end up in that situation. Today, again, the former Prime Minister came out and tried to defend his actions, saying, 'There's nothing to see here.' Former prime minister Scott Morrison said, 'I did nothing wrong; nothing to see here.' It just demonstrates, over and over again, how out of touch the Liberals and Nationals are.

What is more concerning is that they knew that the action they were taking was unlawful but they didn't care; they were only interested in raising revenue. They didn't care about the struggle, the health impact and the mental health impact. We know that there were two young men who took their own lives. These are real people that had done nothing wrong. If Mr Morrison and Mr Dutton had the opportunity, I bet they'd do it all over again, because they don't give a damn. That's the reality of it. It was so blatant, doing this and knowing it was unlawful. They had no concern about the betrayal of the Australian people, who believed that our government is there to support them, not to go after them. Have you ever been in a situation where the government writes you a letter and tells you that you owe money going back a number of years? I don't know, but most people on those benefits would not have kept those records for seven or eight years. It caused undue anxiousness and strain on their mental health and finances.

I want to acknowledge my colleagues, who sat with me and questioned the department and the minister, through the community affairs committee and other committees, about the atrocities that were taking place under the former Liberal government. I want to acknowledge their hard work in bringing this to light. I particularly acknowledge the Hon. Bill Shorten for the great work that he's done.

In the last debate, we had people on that side talking about how this government needs to be open and transparent. That's what we are doing. We're shining a light on the unlawful actions of the former government and the former Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, who had how many other portfolios? Was it five ministerial positions he held? At least three or four of the ministers didn't even know that they had a twin minister at the time!

He still denies any responsibility; he says he did nothing wrong. It just demonstrates how low those opposite will go. They will never acknowledge when they've done something wrong.

How can you convince the people that you have learnt anything? You can't. You cannot be trusted, and that's why they booted you out at the last election. All you're doing in this chamber, day after day, is proving they were right. (Time expired)