Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

targeted and responsible support for some of Australia's most vulnerable people. Rather than taking a bipartisan approach to strengthening the country's safety net, those opposite just want to play politics.

We know that the coalition has a history of promoting policies that are cruel to the most vulnerable Australians. We don't have to go much further than robodebt. Thanks to the royal commission, Australians now know robodebt was a catastrophic policy failure which reversed the onus of proof and relied solely on a flawed, automated system to raise social security debts. Of course, this cruel and crude policy was neither fair nor, indeed, legal. But those in the former government were disinterested in the impact it was having on ordinary Australians. This practice caused suffering to 430,000 Australians. The robodebt royal commission heard countless tragic stories of people being hounded by their government to repay debts they didn't even owe.

While most people recognise that this was a shocking, disgraceful policy, those opposite didn't. We have the member for Cook, the architect of robodebt, who, rather than taking responsibility, seems to think he's a victim. But we shouldn't be surprised, because the member for Cook's response was in line with the Leader of the Opposition. When the robodebt royal commission was announced, the Leader of the Opposition described it as 'nothing but a witch-hunt'. This shows that those opposite never took the robodebt criticism seriously. Whether it's our $40 increase to those doing it tough or robodebt, those opposite have shown they can only be cruel when it comes to those on social security.

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