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

As soon as government reached the conclusion that the use of averaged income was not sufficient, government moved quickly through its normal processes. That led to my giving a media statement on 19 November last year, saying that the government would no longer continue the use of averaged income to determine debts.

It's important when we consider time lines—and the question asked about time lines—that the start of the use of averaged income data was 26 years ago. Last week, I tabled the automatic letter that was in the ISIS computing system. It showed that it was being used for all correspondence back then. I tabled both that letter and an individual letter. In that, on the second page, it goes through about how a debt has been determined. The letter, from 26 years ago, in 1994, says, 'If you do not reply we will use the tax office's information about your income and we will write to you about how much money you need to pay back'. Let's unpack this: 'We'll use the tax office's information'. Welfare is generated fortnight by fortnight, which is why this government, which did not invent the use of averaged income, stopped it. The only way you can use tax office information is when it's annualised, so 26 years ago the then Department of Social Services, under the Keating government, was using annualised data about your income and said, 'We'll write to you about how much money you need to pay back'.

It is quite clear that 26 years ago, from that day until 19 November last year—

Ms Butler interjecting—

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