Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Hansard source

The government has a lawful requirement to protect the integrity of the welfare system. The shadow minister is leaving the House! This issue is of such importance to him that he can't even be bothered to stay in the chamber for it! That says everything we need to know about the member for Maribyrnong's approach on this. It is all politics and no substance. He loves the press conference. He loves to stand there with the CFMMEU's sacked lawyers and say, 'We're standing up.' But when the opportunity comes for him to raise this as a matter of public importance, where is the member for Maribyrnong? Where is he? He's walked out the door and left a bunch of his little insignificant minions behind to carp from the backbench. Well, that says everything we need to know about the member for Maribyrnong.

Let me remind the House exactly why the member for Maribyrnong just scuppered out of here like a little boy who just wet his trousers. It's because of this media release from the member for Maribyrnong and the member for Sydney on 29 June 2011—from both of them, together. Let's read the media release, shall we? And let's come to understand exactly where online compliance and data matching came from. This was on 29 June 2011:

A new data matching initiative between Centrelink and the Australian Taxation Office is expected to claw back millions of dollars from welfare recipients who have debts with the Australian Government.

That's the first paragraph of a joint media release by the members for Sydney and Maribyrnong. It continues:

Minister for Human Services Tanya Plibersek and Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten today said the new initiative will enhance Centrelink’s debt recovery ability and is expected to recover more than $71 million over four years.

…   …   …   

Those who are identified as having debts and who haven't made repayment arrangements with Centrelink may have their tax refunds garnisheed when they lodge their income tax return.

…   …   …

"But if people fail to come to an arrangement to settle their debts, the Government has a responsibility to taxpayers to recover that money."

That's it! That's where the joining of Centrelink and the ATO was started by those two members. Those two members who sit opposite here and jump up and down and yell that this is terrible commenced that process.

Last week, of course, the member for Maribyrnong and journalist Patricia Karvelas had an interview:

KARVELAS: You've spoken today about how much harm this program has done. Do you regret creating it and do you regret not opposing it before the election?

SHORTEN: Oh, Patricia, Patricia!

KARVELAS: That's a reasonable question, Labor created—

SHORTEN: Labor didn't create—

KARVELAS: No, Labor did create robodebt.

SHORTEN: No, well—

KARVELAS: I know; I've watched it. It did.

Those opposite love to say one thing when they aspire to be in government and another thing when they're in opposition.

Who could forget the good shadow minister, weeks before the election, making that fateful comment:

We want to make sure that people aren't receiving welfare to which they're not entitled to. And no one gets a leave pass on that.

So before the election, the then Leader of the Opposition and now shadow minister was saying that no-one would get a leave pass. After the election loss, apparently everyone gets a leave pass! Apparently, there is no longer a requirement for the Commonwealth to lawfully collect debts if no Australian speaks to the department. Apparently they get a leave pass. What else should we give a leave pass on? What else is optional? How about tax returns? Are tax returns now optional? Is that the next step that we'll go on?

Let's make it very, very clear: the federal government spends $180 billion of taxpayers' money to support Australia's social safety net—about a third of total annual government expenditure. The average Australian makes a contribution of $7,610 of their income to our welfare system, or just over nine per cent of their earnings. The Morrison government has not and will not lose sight of the fact that Australians contribute more than a month of their working year to support the welfare system. We're able to support that primarily because this side of the House is engaged with and knows how to operate a strong economy and ensure strong economic management.

A strong economy enables a strong welfare system. But right now, as of 31 October, 950,000 Australians have 1.6 million social welfare debts, totalling $5.3 billion. What those opposite want us to do is just give everyone a leave pass, apparently. Everyone gets a leave pass. Let's look at the leave passes that those opposite want to give. Those opposite sit there and wet their pants when someone comes along with hard questions. I see them over there now—a whole bunch of bedwetters. Right now there are 310,000 Newstart allowance recipients who have an amount of $1.121 billion owing. That was at 30 June this year. Do they get a leave pass? Do they, I ask bedwetters over there? Or do we have a lawful responsibility to protect the integrity of the welfare system and to ensure that the hard-earned money of taxpayers, which they pay in tax to the Commonwealth and from which welfare is provided, is provided sensibly to those who are in need in terms of welfare? According to the shadow minister, everyone now apparently gets a leave pass.

Labor's message right now is: don't engage with the Commonwealth, don't speak to them, because you get a leave pass. Don't bother engaging and saying, 'Here's some detail to substantiate the income that was earned and the welfare that was received.' That is the message that the Labor Party is giving now, and it is appalling. Australians rightly expect welfare recipients to receive the correct amount of support they're entitled to—nothing more, nothing less. Australians expect the right people to get the right amount of money at the right time. It was this government that ended Labor's lucky-dip approach to the ATO data-matching income compliance efforts, where literally hundreds of thousands of identified income data discrepancies and potential debts to taxpayers were simply ignored and simply not pursued. Our compliance activity is central to the community having trust in the administration of welfare payments and ensuring that the right people get the right amount of money at the right time.

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