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

false information which has been placed into the media.

In relation to Andie Fox, there was false information placed in the media in a column which she herself penned. So information was provided to correct the record in relation to those allegations. We also know that because the member for Barton has admitted herself that, in all of the cases which the Labor Party has put up to the media, many of them actually have no idea about the veracity of the claims which they are putting up. In fact, the member for Barton herself said to The Australian, 'We can't guarantee that in every case they are innocent.' And, yet, they are placed up to the media as if the system is wrong and that those individuals do not owe debt when we know from the analysis done by my department that in at least a third of the time they had nothing to do with the online compliance system and, in the majority of times, the people actually do owe debt to the taxpayer. It is allowed under social security law for the government to be able to correct the record for when individual case studies are put up alleging that there has been a breach of the system or an incorrect allegation has been made in the system. That is exactly what we have done in relation to the Andie Fox example—to correct the record. And that is the main allegation.

I will point out, by the way, Mr Speaker, that the Labor Party has put up and encouraged well over 50 people to come forward and put their public details into the public domain. The member for Jagajaga, an experienced member, would know what the social security law is in relation to being able to correct the record. But they have encouraged these people to go into the media and have their details put up. I know that the member for Bendigo is very quiet there. The member for Bendigo gave details directly to her local media outlets without at any stage approaching myself or my office to try to get what she believed was an issue that needed to be fixed. In fact, we are still waiting for the member for Bendigo to receive that information. Nevertheless, she emailed details directly to WIN News TV in Bendigo. She provided them with the address, the name, the mobile phone number. I have it here in an email because the email was subsequently forwarded to us. So the member for Bendigo has provided all that information about these individuals through to WIN TV. As I said, I am still waiting for that information to come to me to be able to investigate if there is, in fact, something that needs to be corrected.

Ms Chesters interjecting—

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