Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Digital Transformation) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member very much for his question and for his interest in these matters. He is aware that thousands of former welfare recipients—this is people who have now moved from the welfare system into the workforce—currently owe us $905 million in unpaid debts. This is an extraordinarily large amount, and the government believes that people who have received welfare payments that they are not entitled to are required to pay that money back. Some of these cases involve serious criminality, including one person who defrauded $800,000 from the Commonwealth but is still refusing to enter into arrangements to pay that money back.

We don't think it's unreasonable to expect, when people have moved from the welfare system into employment, that they repay the almost $1 billion that they have received from Australian taxpayers and that they now owe the Commonwealth. We've been working with those who do owe us this money to enter into appropriate repayment arrangements, but those who continually refuse to engage with us will be hit, from now on, with interest on their debt. This interest will compound daily, and it will continue to compound until they either repay their debt or enter into a repayment plan to pay the taxpayers back that money.

This $905 million that we're targeting and that we're aiming to recover is on top of the $1½ billion that we've already recovered over the past 18 months through our comprehensive compliance efforts. We are committed to budget repair, and ensuring that our welfare system operates with integrity and is sustainable and fair is a very important part of that.

I was asked by the member about alternative approaches. Under Labor, compliance was not a priority, and it took a back seat. Penalties were soft and the Labor Party completed only 16 per cent of the compliance checks that we're undertaking today. They also slashed the recovery of debt by 50 per cent. When the Howard government left office in 2007, they were collecting $420 million of debt. By the time the Labor Party left office in 2013 they were collecting only $220 million worth of debt.

We believe that the best form of welfare remains getting a job. In the past two years 120,000 Australians in the welfare system receiving the jobseeking allowance or disability or parenting payments have moved off these payments—120,000 people. This is a result of our measures which have been encouraging people into work and strengthening our compliance efforts. Of course this is a generational change in terms of the savings that will be made to the Australian taxpayer, because of the integrity with which we're running the system.

We believe that most Australians in the welfare system want a job and we're committed to ensuring that they have the support that they need and the encouragement that they need to get a job. That is one of the very important parts of our budget repair, and we'll continue to prioritise that. (Time expired)

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