Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have seen extraordinary scenes during Senate estimates today. We now know that the Minister for Human Services will do anything to distract from his error-prone robo-debt system. The Minister for Human Services' department could not tell us if the private information he provided to the media on a number of occasions had received any authorisation from the secretary.

The minister is focused on personal vendettas and on smearing ordinary Australians, but he has no plan to fix his broken system. In his desperate attempt to cover up his failure at Centrelink, he has walked a very dangerous legal line. I cannot yet say if the minister or his office acted legally, but I know they did not act ethically. Running the moral spirit level over what has been revealed, nothing was even. It is not the role of a government to target individual citizens. This minister does not understand that the way to stop the negative headlines is to do a good job, not attack citizens.

The minister's department threw him under a bus today. They could not confirm whether his incredible disclosures were legal, because they had no idea what he had passed on. I have been a minister. It helps to talk to your department from time to time. Those opposite should bring their colleague into line, stop focusing on revenge and start focusing on doing their jobs. (Time expired)