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

There are a number of responses to that. Firstly, as I said earlier, the prefilling will only occur as long as Services Australia have thoroughly tested the reporting channels and they are absolutely confident of the quality of the data that is being prefilled. I can give you that absolute commitment.

We know that 1.2 million Australians report having received income over a 12-month period. And we know that, in the period between 1 September 2020 and 30 June 2021, we will need to have provided assistance to 95 per cent of them, because that's the estimate of how many people over that 10-month period are going to transition. We will certainly make sure that there is a rump of resources available in September, as soon as we know that the prefill is working the way we want it to work. The prefill may not occur on 1 September; it will occur when we're satisfied that it's working properly. And, as soon as we're satisfied that it's working properly, we will then make sure that we will maximise the resources that are available at that time. We certainly took on board the commentary that came out of the committee that suggested that a little pop-up should come up on the screen, before you actually push the button to submit your form at the end of a pay period, that says, 'This form has been prefilled. Have you checked the data against your payroll slip? Are you comfortable that the data contained in here is truly reflective of your income for the pay period?' So people will have to actively push a button to say yes, they have checked and they understand what they're doing.

We also understand that there will be people who may seek to have more information the first time they do it. They may feel a level of uncertainty. Once again, we will make sure, when they go to submit that form, that it really clearly says, 'If you have any uncertainty about doing this for the first time or if you've got any concerns or questions, please contact this number.' In the first instance we will make sure that Services Australia is thoroughly resourced to make sure that, when people contact them, the phone lines are open and accessible and they don't have wait times. This is a transition period, we understand. It's probably not something, once people get used to it, that they're going to need to do in the future, but we clearly understand that the smoothness of the transition period, the adequacy of the information and the support that is provided to people are going to have a very big bearing on the successful initial operation of this particular new initiative.