Andrew Charlton (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Two thousand, seven hundred and forty-five—that's how many people in my electorate were affected by robodebt. That's how many were taken advantage of by a callous coalition government. That's how many parents, children, brothers and sisters were victims of this illegal scheme.

One of the most precious things we have in our democracy is trust in government: trust that the government is competent; trust that the government is there on people's side; and trust at the most basic level that government is not there to harm people. One of the tragedies of this scheme is not just all of the human stories of those affected by it, but the impact it had on our democracy and on the belief that government is competent and on the side of people.

Mahatma Gandhi said that the measure of the greatness of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable people. In this sorry saga, we treated some of our society's most vulnerable people with egregious neglect—with a level of callousness and disrespect that calls into question the fundamental ethics of our democracy and our government. Beginning in 2015, 470,000 Australians fell victim to robodebt. It took $1.8 billion from the pockets of some of our most vulnerable Australians. It caused untold psychological, emotional and financial damage to families across the country. It eroded our trust in government, and it showed a deep disrespect for the most vulnerable people in our community.

See this speech in context