Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

In direct response to your question, Services Australia is currently in the process of identifying those people who may be impacted by this particular change in measure for ensuring the integrity of our social welfare system. I see there is no value whatsoever in pre-empting that process. But it is very important for people to understand that income averaging does not occur in all debt determinations. In past cases where we identified the debts or part-debts involved were solely the case of income averaging, we are in the process of identifying those people and giving them the opportunity to have a review of their particular cases.

It is also very important to note that, generally, the people that we're referring to here are people who have chosen—actively chosen—not to engage in the process of the Australian government seeking to recover debts that have been incurred by Australians. I think the average Australian would be very concerned to think that the Australian government was not meeting its responsibility for reducing debt and making sure that, when people receive payments to which they are not entitled, we continue to recover those debts. (Time expired)