Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this matter of public importance brought by the member for Maribyrnong on the government's unlawful online compliance program, also known as robodebt. I'll start by correcting the record. The minister has called them 'refinements'. What the minister has done is remove the human oversight. It is not a refinement; it's a corruption. That's what they've done.

The Morrison government has been sprung illegally standing over the Australian public for millions of dollars with its toxic robodebt scheme. Something that we on this side of the House have suspected for some time and that Labor has been saying for months was handed down in a formal judgement by the Federal Court. It is now time for the government to stop spinning, stop denying there are any problems with the scheme and outline to the public how the ill-gotten funds will be repaid to the robodebt's innocent victims. The minister quoted from a sample letter that people receive. I also would like to quote from a letter; it was received by a DSP recipient. It said: 'At the moment, Task Force Integrity are talking to people in Long Jetty about how they can help us stop welfare fraud. We know that most people receiving a payment from Centrelink do the right thing by making sure their details are up to date.' This letter with an AFP crest on it was received by a grandmother who was the victim of a major motor vehicle accident and who lives in my electorate. This is the kind of heavy-handed letter that people receive.

The Federal Court yesterday handed down its decision on Deanna Amato's case, confirming that the government has no legal basis to extort money from its own citizens using its harsh, unfair algorithm, which the minister calls a refinement. Last week, the government conceded it is unlawful, by putting a freeze on its defining features—income averaging and reverse practical onus of proof—when it realised it couldn't come up with any legal argument to the Victorian legal aid matter. We know for a fact that the suspension of the scheme was a reaction to legal advice the government received in respect of the Amato court case and the looming Gordon legal class action. Clearly the minister doesn't want to hear what the Federal Court said.

This is long-delayed justice for Australians who have for the past three years suffered at the hands of the coalition's rogue robodebt. It has wrought a trail of carnage on Australians, including students, people with a disability and the unemployed—those in need of assistance, not a kick in the guts. Now Australians need answers. The Morrison government owes its citizens the courtesy of explaining how these people will be contacted and how they will be paid back. Just this Monday, Minister Stuart Robert declared in response to a question to the House that this government does not apologise for robodebt. Does it apologise now or does it disagree with the Federal Court?

Recently, I was contacted by Tanya, who is a 48-year-old single parent from my electorate. She lives in Bateau Bay. On 7 November she was sent two separate debt notices. One was for the period 2017-18, for $4,496, and one was for the period 2018-19, for $7,070. She was told that unless she repaid the entire date within one month—by 7 December—Centrelink would start garnishing her payments. However, she was not told how much would be garnished from her payments, leaving her in immense financial distress. What sort of Christmas are Tanya and her family going to have with this hanging over their heads?

Christian Porter acknowledged in his National Press Club address last week that the government had received new legal advice in light of the Federal Court actions. Naturally, there are some questions which arise from these concessions. Did the government fail to check robodebt was legal before they created the scheme? It is a rogue scheme that has sent letters to 900,000 people of whom the department has admitted that roughly 20 per cent resulted in no debt at all. Did the government receive advice but ignore its own counsel and decide to proceed with unjustly enriching itself at the expense of the most vulnerable in our society? Will the Attorney-General now apologise for robodebt, seeing as he refused to do so after a 2017 Senate inquiry found the scheme was destined to fail and should be suspended immediately? Now the scheme is finally being reversed. Even if the government omitted to check the scheme was legally watertight when they set it up, it's not as if they haven't had fair warning since. The Morrison government simply cannot claim they were ignorant of the shaky foundations of the scheme. They've had nearly three years of calls from legal figures, advocacy groups, community groups, unions, academics, two Commonwealth Ombudsman reports and three Senate inquiries. What more evidence do they need to know that this is illegal and that they are attacking the most vulnerable people in our society? They must apologise. They must pay the people back.

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