Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Let's be very clear: welfare payments are not payments by the government. These are payments by Australians from their taxes to their fellow Australians who are experiencing tough times. It is, if you like, an expression of those tax-paying Australians to those who are experiencing hard times that they are willing to assist and provide them support in their time of need. With the tax system, we do have situations where people seek to minimise their tax and take advantage. Therefore, we quite rightly pursue those who don't pay enough tax. Similarly, in the welfare system, regrettably, there are those people who seek to manipulate the system and gain moneys to which they are not entitled. There are others who simply make honest mistakes, as occurs with the tax system.

So, we have on the one hand the Australian Taxation Office, which genuinely seeks to recoup taxes that should have been paid, and, on the other hand, welfare agencies that seek to recoup moneys that should not have been paid. That is the motivation behind the so-called robodebts. Once that is understood, the sorts of ugly motives that the Labor Party seek to impute in relation to this are completely unacceptable, without foundation and without fact. This is just an attempt to besmirch the government and besmirch the agencies. Why? Because they don't have a positive agenda of their own to submit to the Australian people.

It makes good sense that we as a government, as the stewards of Australian taxpayers' money, seek to ensure that welfare recipients get that which they deserve and no more. Similarly, as good stewards we seek to ensure that people pay the tax that they are required to pay and no less. This is the balancing act of any good government that seeks to manage the economy for the wellbeing and welfare of all Australians, and so the Australian Labor Party, in coming into this debate as they have, show again how devoid they are of understanding of the way that our system works and seeks to support our fellow Australians.

Has the robodebt system had its faults? Yes, and I've been on the public record, in my home state of Tasmania, indicating some of those faults quite some time ago and assisting people who fell afoul of it. It would be fair to say that it was suboptimal. It could have been done better, but to impute the sorts of motives that the Australian Labor Party have tried to does them no credit and besmirches all those people that put the system together—with some faults. As those faults have come to light, the government quite rightly has reacted and responded to ensure that this system is as fine-tuned and good as possible and is fair to all concerned.

Within this debate you never hear the Australian Labor Party remind our fellow Australians that every single dollar of welfare payments doesn't just materialise out of the sky; it is actually taken by the Australian government out of the pockets of our fellow Australians. That is where the money comes from; therefore it is right and proper that as a government we seek to ensure that only those that are entitled receive welfare payments and that those that accidentally or deliberately are paid too much make the repayment not to the government but to their fellow Australians, because it is actually their money, not the government's money.

We then heard from Senator Gallacher about wage theft. There was a question by one Labor senator about closing down the companies that engage in wage theft. Wouldn't that be a good idea for the ABC, which accidentally underpaid over 2,000 of their workers? The reason I raise this is that people sometimes do make honest mistakes, and you have to take that into account but then ensure that the repayments are made. That is what this is all about, and I support the government's moves.