Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

When it comes to their hard-earned income and tax, Australians rightly expect the government will spend their money responsibly. Given that Services Australia makes $180 billion worth of payments a year, it's reasonable to expect that the government will work to ensure that this money is spent diligently and that overpayments are prevented and recovered. Currently, over 950,000 Australians have social welfare debts totalling $5.3 billion. Not only does the government have obligations to taxpayers it represents; it also has a legal obligation to pursue recovery of these debts. For this reason, debt recovery processes have been a feature of Australia's welfare system for over 30 years through successive governments—Labor and Liberal alike. The Income Compliance Program was developed to make the identification of welfare overpayments more efficient. Income averaging was used in instances where customers did not respond to or fully engage with requests to clarify discrepancies between income earnings reported to Centrelink and the Australian Taxation Office.

This policy was introduced by Labor. When the Minister for Government Services, Stuart Robert, was presented with new information in November last year, he took immediate action to pause all debt recovery activity because of the insufficiency of information surrounding debts raised through the ATO income averaging system. I applaud Minister Robert for acting swiftly and transparently on this matter. From July this year, in good faith, the government will begin repaying debts to affected Australians, acknowledging that income averaging from ATO data was not an accurate enough means of gauging income. Services Australia will progressively refund all repayments made on debts raised wholly or partially using the system since 2015-16. Approximately 470,000 such debts have been identified. Refunding of eligible debts will commence in July, with the majority of refunds completed by November 2020. Refunds will also be will be made on any interest charges and recovery fees paid on related debts. The total value of refunds, including fees and charges, is estimated at $721 million.

Services Australia does tremendous work to assist people facing difficult circumstances and has an extensive network of support providers to care for people in times of crisis and vulnerability. The government does not want people to feel they are in a situation of helplessness and that help is not available. That is why mental health and suicide prevention are and have always been key priorities of this government. The Morrison-McCormack government is continually taking action to help Australians who experience mental health problems, especially throughout the difficult circumstances imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Last month the government announced an additional $48.1 million to support the National Mental Health and Wellbeing Pandemic Response Plan. This investment builds on approximately $500 million for mental health and suicide prevention announced by the government since 30 January, including $64 million for suicide prevention and $74 million for preventive mental health services and a significant proportion of the $669 million telehealth package to support MBS subsidised treatments provided by GPs, psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals—very important in Mallee and other regional centres.

I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the work of Services Australia during the pandemic and the government's actions to effectively double the jobseeker payment via the $550 coronavirus supplement. I know that many people in my electorate of Mallee have benefited from the jobseeker and JobKeeper programs. Data from the Grattan Institute has shown that job losses experienced in Mallee were nearly the highest in Victoria in the month of April. The government's economic response through jobseeker and JobKeeper payments as well as household support payments of $750 have been vital to people that have been affected by the pandemic and have meant that vulnerable Australians have a safety net in this difficult time.

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 a year. The Morrison-McCormack government will not lose sight of the fact that Australians contribute more than a month of their working year to support the welfare system. It is important that the government provides the right amount of money to the right people at the right time to ensure the integrity of Australia's welfare system into the future.

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