Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Oversight Legislation Amendment (Robodebt Royal Commission Response and Other Measures) Bill 2024. On 18 August 2022, letters patent were issued to establish the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme. Subsequently, on 7 July 2023, Commissioner Holmes delivered her report to the Governor-General. A total of 1,099 submissions were received by the royal commission and, coupled with public hearings, contributed to a subsequent 1,052 page report. That report listed 57 recommendations that the bill before us seeks to implement.

The preface to the Report of the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme states, in part:

It is remarkable how little interest there seems to have been in ensuring the Scheme's legality, how rushed its implementation was, how little thought was given to how it would affect welfare recipients and the lengths to which public servants were prepared to go to oblige ministers on a quest for savings. Truly dismaying was the revelation of dishonesty and collusion to prevent the Scheme's lack of legal foundation coming to light. Equally disheartening was the ineffectiveness of what one might consider institutional checks and balances—the Commonwealth Ombudsman's office, the Office of Legal Services Coordination, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal—in presenting any hindrance to the Scheme's continuance.

The robodebt scheme will surely go down in the history of the country as one of the most shameful chapters of mal- and misadministration. At the time of the release of the commissioner's report, the minister for the NDIS and Services Australia said these eloquent and heartfelt words:

To those who took their own lives because of Robodebt and their families, we pay our respects. The horrible pain inflicted upon you should never have happened.

To the activists, advocates, whistleblowers, journalists, members of Labor and the cross bench, and, of course, the victims themselves who fought tirelessly for accountability and justice, today is because of you.

Never again should people receiving government supports be demonised as second-class citizens.

We owe it as a parliament and a nation to ensure that the victims of robodebt are never forgotten, and we also owe it to them to ensure such an evil scheme never happens again. To this end, robust and effective oversight of Commonwealth agencies is essential to ensure that such agencies act with integrity and in a manner that is lawful, fair, transparent and meets the needs of the communities they serve.

Having exposed the failures of robodebt, the Albanese government is committed to implementing the recommendations from Commissioner Holmes's report. In doing so, the government is committed to improve public trust that government agencies are acting with accountability and integrity. The bill implements the government's response to recommendation 21.2 of the royal commission's report. It does this by amending the Ombudsman Act 1976 and the Inspector-General of Taxation Act 2003. In effect, the bill will bolster the powers and capabilities of the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the Inspector-General of Taxation and the Taxation Ombudsman. Both the Ombudsman and the Inspector-General play crucial and important roles in ensuring that government agencies act with integrity and fairness and in influencing systemic improvement in government administration. Likewise, the Inspector-General of Taxation and the Taxation Ombudsman has an extremely important role in providing assurance to the community that taxation laws are being administered with integrity.

Specifically, in relation to recommendation 21.1, this bill imposes a statutory duty on secretaries and agency heads and officers of departments or agencies to assist the Ombudsman and the Inspector-General of Taxation and Taxation Ombudsman in the performance of their functions.

In relation to recommendation 21.2, the bill strengthens the power of the Ombudsman and Inspector-General of Taxation and the Taxation Ombudsman to obtain full, free and direct access to agency records as part of an investigation by requiring officials be provided with all reasonable facilities and assistance to exercise these powers. Further, it will be a criminal offence to withhold such facilities or assistance. Importantly, by providing full, free and direct access to agency records as part of an investigation, the bill will ensure the Ombudsman and the inspector-general can undertake full, independent and transparent investigations.

I commenced these remarks by referencing some of Commissioner Holmes's comments in the preface to the report. Her observation about the disheartening ineffectiveness of institutional checks and balances is a wake-up call and a lightning rod for a call to change. It is a call this government will not ignore. We owe it to the nation and to the thousands of victims of robodebt to ensure our institutional checks and balances are so strong, so robust and so effective that another tragedy such as robodebt will be prevented. That robodebt was ever allowed to occur in the first instance was a tragedy and a national disgrace. It's also damning of the institutions and checks and balances we rely on to prevent such things occurring.

I hope the passage of this bill reassures the Australian public that this government is committed to the highest level of administration and world's best practice of openness and accountability.

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