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

I would put on the record that the Prime Minister has expressed his regret to those people that have been impacted by this particular activity which we have acknowledged has been deemed as not being a valid means by which to collect debt. We don't shy away from the fact that it has been found that this is not a valid means by which to generate a debt. There is no argument, and we have apologised and shown regret for the consequences of doing that.

But let me remind everybody in this chamber that this method of determining debt is not something that we came up with. In fact, it was under the opposition's watch. A Minister for Human Services in their government, Tanya Plibersek, from the other place said:

… if people fail to come to an arrangement to settle their debts, the Government has a responsibility to taxpayers to recover that money.

We support Ms Plibersek's view on this 100 per cent. (Time expired)