Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Macarthur for his question. He was a tough cop on the beat in his working life before coming to this place. One of the great things about the government party room is that it is comprised of people—as you know, Mr Deputy Speaker—from so many different backgrounds. Having someone with the law enforcement experience of the member of Macarthur in this place is a great asset to this government. His passion for issues relating to law and order and community prevention of violence and things of this nature make him a real leader in his community not just as the member for Macarthur but as a person of great standing in his community over many, many years.

He knows what is required to deal with those who would seek to game the system, for those who would seek to rort the system, for those who would seek to basically steal from taxpayers. Before coming into this place he was used to dealing with crooks. It is very important that in this portfolio, when it comes to the integrity of the social services budget and its implementation through the Human Services portfolio, we do take a very strong approach when it comes to those who are not there to benefit from the system because of any issue of need but to benefit from it because they want to rort it. The measures that we have put in this budget give great substance to our promise that we are putting a tough welfare cop on the beat. There is a four-year intensive package of compliance strategies funded in this budget that complements the WPIT program I just made reference to in relation to an earlier member's question, by which time more streamlined compliance activities developed through the measures will be integrated into a 'business as usual' approach.

The measures from July 2015 will increase the number of fraud investigations and compliance interventions by over 900,000 over four years. That is what we are doing; that is a serious welfare cop on the beat. Fraud investigations and compliance interventions will increase by 900,000 over the next four years—we are going after the cheats, and we are going to stop those cheats. We are going to stop those rorters. This will deliver $1.7 billion in gross savings returned to the government in the budget. It will increase the number of individuals prosecuted for serious welfare offences, as they should be. That will send a very clear message: when it comes to this government we are not going to cop the fraud on behalf of the taxpayer—we are going to pursue it. This fraud and compliance activity is in addition to the fraud and compliance work already undertaken that returns significant savings to government annually. In 2013-14, DHS conducted 869,000 compliance interventions which resulted in $284 million in debts raised and fortnightly savings of $19.2 million, and prevented outlays of $51.8 million.

On 1 July 2015 a new task force will commence that will involve the establishment and developed deployment of specialised teams dedicated to fraud and non-compliance activity. The task force will focus on specific geographic locations and, importantly, will be led by a senior AFP officer—an actual cop. The task force will include intelligence support, compliance officers and fraud investigators. The task force will also include both a centralised intelligence component and field teams operating in the identified areas. The task force will audit individuals in receipt of income support payments to increase the likelihood of detection of current fraud and deterrence of future incorrect claims in the targeted areas. Locations will be selected according to the level of risk based on intelligence and data analysis, and will be conducted at specific locations around Australia on a rolling basis.

There will be an employment income-matching program for individuals who have failed to declare or undeclared their income between 2010 and 2013. That will be reviewed from 1 July 2015. These individuals have already been identified through the existing data-matching arrangements with the Australian Taxation Office. There are other elements—the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre—commencing on 1 January 2016, and real-time risk profiling, which commences on the same date. From 1 January next year a more active online approach will be introduced for customer reporting and declarations. There will be strengthened obligations for students commencing on 1 January next year, with full implementation from January 2017. We make no apologies for strong action to detect and deter welfare fraud. Not on our watch, Mr Deputy Speaker. We will be stopping the rorts.

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