Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, you have raised some issues there. I just want to ask you some questions before we go to the vote on the amendment. One of the propositions that you have put forward that we are prepared to consider is the automation of the income stream review process. We do that on the basis that if that automated review process comes in, it can actually be managed effectively and properly by the government.

As you are aware, we would not have a lot of confidence in that, given what has happened with the DHS system. There has been much criticism of the government's capacity to actually handle IT. The former head—the chief digital officer—Paul Shetler said that it was difficult for him to watch successive IT failures, which he described as 'cataclysmic', and, 'Not a crisis of IT but a crisis of government'.

If there is support for this automation, what have you done to make sure that this automation can be done effectively and efficiently, and will not be a cataclysmic failure nor another crisis of government?