Alan Tudge (Aston, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

The member screeches at me that they cannot get through on that dedicated 1800 number. Actually I myself have been calling it very regularly, as have my staff, and on all occasions we have been able to get through quite quickly. I would encourage the member to test that dedicated number herself.

How did this system come about? This is important. What are the origins of this system? This data-matching between Centrelink information and Australian Taxation Office information actually originated back in 1990, when Graham Richardson introduced what is called the Data-matching Program (Assistance and Tax) Act. That is when the process started. Since that time, essentially the same methodology has been used, where that information is compared and, where there is a discrepancy, a request is made of the recipient to explain that discrepancy. If they can, that is the end of the story. If they cannot, a debt may be raised against that person.

In 2011 it was actually the Labor Party, again, who introduced some sort of automation into the system. Indeed, the now Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition were the two people in charge of introducing some form of automation into the system. Then in the 2015-16 budget we decided that we would expand the system to cover more people, and consequently my department has been implementing that system since. But I stress that the methodology which is being used to compare the Centrelink information with the Australian Taxation Office information is essentially the same that has always been the case.

'Why do we have to do such checks?' is a question that is frequently asked. Unfortunately, we have to do such checks because, despite the fact that the vast majority of people do the right thing, it is the case that some people do the wrong thing and deliberately defraud the system, while many people inadvertently do not update their income information correctly while they are on Centrelink benefits and, consequently, receive an overpayment. Even in some of the very high-profile examples, which the member for Barton has put up to the media, that is exactly the case. The member for Barton has admitted that many of those cases that have been in the media over summer she put up to the media, but she also admitted to the media that she did not know whether they were innocent or not.

When you look through some of those cases it is quite clear that, in fact, those people do owe money, despite the member for Barton putting up their cases as being so-called victims of the system. For example, here is one of a Victorian woman—who has been in the media—who was on an income support payment for the entire year of 2015-16. That person declared income of less than $9,000, but the Australian Taxation Office record showed that she actually had a business of her own and that her business earned more than $48,000 during that time.

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