Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

As I said at the beginning, the overwhelming majority of people in receipt of payments from my department are honest, but there continues to be a small number of people who try to defraud the welfare system and to actively avoid detection in so doing. We use advanced data-mining and data-matching techniques in conjunction with digital forensics and forensic accounting to detect fraud and non-compliance. The 2014-15 fraud compliance budget measure that I have just been speaking about will significantly strengthen my department's existing capabilities. In fact, in the 2013-14 financial year our department's compliance and fraud control program saved taxpayers over $870 million. In the same financial year my department also conducted over 3100 criminal investigations with more than $49 million and referred 1158 matters to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions. In addition, in that financial year the department conducted over180,000—(Time expired)