Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Law-abiding age pensioners are the vulnerable people now being targeted by Centrelink in what I can only describe as a new low. Rather than recouping the billions of dollars in JobKeeper pocketed by profitable businesses, the federal government is instead targeting older Australians in a cruel and mindless attempt to claw back money. Again, just like robodebt, they're doing it with useless automated systems that cost a bundle to create but achieve nothing other than terrorising the most vulnerable in the community.

Computer generated letters, in a barely comprehensible form, have been fired off to older Australians, demanding financial records dating back years, with the deadline often only one week away. Moreover, each carries the threat of cancelled payments. We saw, just recently, media reports of an 80-year-old man with advanced dementia and living in a nursing home whose pension was cancelled because he didn't provide the requested information. 'Shocked, bullied and panicked'—that's how another octogenarian felt after opening a three-page letter from Centrelink demanding that she supply financial records dating back a startling 17 years. 'I'm just so stressed. I don't understand why they're doing this. The pension is the only income we have.' This is what yet another, 83-year-old, woman told my office last week. Both she and her husband suffer serious health issues, with her husband needing assistance simply to breathe.

Indeed, since commenting publicly about this issue, I've received correspondence from age pensioners right across Australia, sharing their stories. Overwhelmingly, people feel offended by the way Centrelink questions their integrity and fearful that, by inadvertently doing the wrong thing, they may be accused of fraud. Then there's the worry of having pension payments cut, when they rely on that money to live.

These are good people who have always paid their bills on time, paid their taxes and done what they can to be good citizens, so receiving a letter from a federal government agency suggesting otherwise is obviously deeply distressing.

Of course, the explanation given by the department and the minister is that these letters protect age pensioners from debt. What nonsense—what they actually do is create more work for already overburdened and under-resourced Centrelink staff and force older Australians to jump through unnecessary hoops. How about we start treating older Australians with respect and provide them with a service that assists and supports them, as our social security system was designed to do, starting with ditching these crappy automated systems? Yes, that would require more staff and better training. Yes, that would require more face-to-face services and better ways of communicating with people. But that's exactly what's required if we are to start treating older Australians fairly and with respect.