Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I've always liked numbers, so let's start with some numbers for those opposite, who are all complicit in the 430,000 Australians who were illegally issued with robodebt notices. Yes; 430,000 Australians were targeted by the former social services minister, former Treasurer and now Prime Minister of Australia. There is a $1.2 billion payout, which is the biggest class action settlement in Australian government history. How about a round of applause for those opposite: you made history, guys, congratulations! You have cost the Australian taxpayer $1.2 billion. Then again, what's $1.2 billion to those opposite, who are racking up a trillion dollars in national debt? They're the worst economic managers in the history of this country.

We know on this side, and the Australian people know, that ministerial responsibility is dead in this country, and, if this doesn't prove that, then I don't know what will. It's about the arrogance of this government, who were forewarned that their actions were illegal. The automation process and the computerisation of the robodebt was a decision made by the current government. Those opposite cannot escape that fact, as much as they try. We know how often they come into this place to try and rewrite history. Those opposite had been advised that the scheme was illegal, and it took them months and months to act on this and to stop sending debt notices out to vulnerable Australians. This could have been fixed quickly by the government. Instead, these people were dragged through the court process because of the government's ideological bent—they know best all the time and they are never wrong! Well, justice was served. The judiciary made a judgement. And now the taxpayer is forced to pay because of the utter incompetence and arrogance of those opposite.

Let's be clear here: 430,000 welfare recipients were wrongly accused by the Turnbull and Morrison governments of misreporting their income. This was an appalling injustice done to people who couldn't defend themselves. The callous, ruthless and impersonal way of pursuing welfare recipients was always brutal, and you can understand why it was designed by Scott Morrison, our Prime Minister—it is right up his alley.

In the words of Bill Shorten, who stood up for the 430,000 victims of this government, the Morrison government has been forced to give the money of those people back to them. Let's not forget that, when Labor first raised the concerns of the 430,000 harassed and aggrieved Australians who received robodebt notices, it was Stuart Robert, the Minister for Government Services, and the Prime Minister who said it was merely a political stunt. Can you believe that? We know the mentality of those opposite. They want to stigmatise people on Centrelink, stigmatise people who receive money from the Commonwealth. They demonise people; they talk them down. During this whole fiasco, the Prime Minister just said: 'There is nothing to see here. Move along. No-one has been aggrieved.' Well, how wrong the Prime Minister was. We knew all along that they were in the wrong. Prime Minister, $1.2 billion of taxpayer money is not 'moving along'. It's the taxpayers money and you, sir, cannot be trusted with the Australian Treasury anymore.

This entire calamity could been avoided if not for your philosophical hatred of people who receive welfare at some point in their lives to make a fresh start, to provide assistance for a short time in order to get back on their feet. The government has paid out $1.2 billion in the biggest settlement in Australian government history. Yet they argued that they are not liable. This isn't a comedy set, Mr Morrison; you take the Australian people for granted every single day. This government cannot run away from this issue like they try to run away from accountability and transparency every other day. The government is yet to explain how the scheme was so poorly administered. The question must be asked: how did we get ourselves into a set of circumstances where ministers either knew that the law was being broken or never bothered to find out what the law was? How did we get to a situation where senior public servants—not the Centrelink staff at the counter, but the senior public servants—authorised a scheme which was illegal?

There is a human toll to this whole fiasco—the 430,000 people, and their families, who enjoyed the torment and shame of being hunted and victimised by their government. The government's actions have had consequences for people's lives. Those on the government side really don't give a damn. Otherwise, they would have thought before they acted. These people couldn't get jobs because they had a debt finding—families and people who had shame and stigma, a lot of people who don't want to be on Centrelink and were embarrassed about their debt. Whether they really had a debt or not, they still felt that shame. People were mistreated and they deserve a sincere apology from the Prime Minister, from Minister Robert and from those opposite.

I want to conclude by acknowledging that the settlement is justice for the victims who have been treated terribly, shamefully, by the Morrison government. For years the Morrison government has been in denial about robodebt's fairness and legality. Even after the robodebt scheme was proven through the courts to be illegal, what have we seen? Nothing in the way of an apology from either the Prime Minister or Minister Robert. We know the anxiety and the extra poverty that was caused. We know that there were even suicides because of the shame. Some of those people who couldn't fight because they perceived that the government would have to be in the right and they couldn't prove that they didn't owe a debt unfortunately took their own lives. Their families have been left devastated.

It is only after the prospect of coalition ministers, such as the former Minister for Human Services, Alan Tudge, having to take the witness stand to answer questions on what they knew that the government have now agreed to pay a fair amount of compensation to these victims. What is the dirty secret about robodebt's origins that the government don't want anyone to know? Were they told it was illegal and ignored that advice from the outset? Did they not check its legality at all before unleashing it on the unsuspecting public? How much taxpayer money have the Morrison government wasted fighting this unwinnable case? Only a royal commission into the robodebt will give the public the answers that they deserve.

In the meantime, Mr Morrison should have sacked Minister Robert. Everything that guy touches turns to stone. He's hopeless. He's indefensible in terms of his actions and the stupidity of the way this whole fiasco was handled. There are so many on that side of the chamber who don't deserve to be ministers. We have Richard Colbeck, another failed minister in his responsibilities. And Stuart Robert is almost like the gift that keeps on giving—every single time he has his fingers in a pie it turns to stone. This has been a national disgrace and a scandal. (Time expired)