Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw. Minister, I received an anonymous tip-off to my office last week, and I would like your commentary on it—perhaps take it on notice. This was from a mother of two children with severe disabilities who self-manages their NDIS plan. She recently encountered a new Centrelink data-matching bungle she wanted to bring to your attention. Centrelink had begun the process of raising a debt against her under the robo-debt automated debt recovery process for undeclared income. However, as it turns out, this was a series of NDIS payments for her two severely disabled children. She provided the evidence and said, 'Can this not happen again.' But Centrelink said to her very clearly that they were unable to guarantee that this won't happen again, that they have recently expanded the program and that there is no way of forcing the system to recognise NDIA payments for what they are. She was shocked by this and was told to contact the NDIA. She did so. She receives 200 to 300 individual payments into her bank account each year for various NDIA services—reimbursements. Minister, can you rule out this happening to any other Australian? If not, what can be done to fix it? Can everyone in Australia on self-managed care plans now expect robo-debt mark II?

See this speech in context