Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Newcastle for her question and for her very strong advocacy, including on this issue. You do measure a society by how it treats its most vulnerable and robodebt was a cruel failure of this fundamental test because of trauma and fear. In the name of the Australian government, 443,000 people were falsely accused of owing the government money. Australians were hounded and harassed over debts that did not exist. At the height of the scheme, the member for Aston, who was human services minister, said:

We'll find you, we'll track you down and you will have to repay those debts and you may end up in prison.

What we know is that at the very time the government knew that it was illegal and unlawful, in black and white.

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