Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to talk about robodebt. Talking about it is something that many of us even dared to dream about: the fact that people will get refunded those illegally raised debts. The news that the government is going to refund robodebts was a vindication for those who have fought so long against this unfair illegal process that used income averaging that was blatantly unfair, wrong and found to be illegal. Robodebt has caused untold suffering to our community, and it will be almost impossible to account for the social and economic costs of this government's illegal process—one that reversed the onus of proof and put people behind the eight ball right from the start in trying to prove that they did not have a debt.

The government has been heartless and cruel throughout this entire process, and their failure to even consider apologising to the people affected means we cannot rely on them and we cannot trust them not to try to do it again. I'll never forget listening to the people in our community give evidence to the Senate inquiry about this process—what it was and what it felt like to receive a robodebt.

We began getting calls into my office in the latter half of 2016 and then it became many emails a day. What do you tell someone living on Newstart when it's coming up to Christmas, when it's then the January shutdown period, the January school holiday period, after they've received a letter out of the blue saying they owe what to them is a fortune? To some people it was upwards of $10,000. They were given impossible odds to try and prove that they didn't owe it. They had to go back and find payslips from years and years ago. They had to go and try and find bank records. At the time some of the banks were charging even more money for people that were living, some of them, on as little as $40 a day.

From the start there were questions regarding the legality of income averaging and the whole process. It kept getting batted off by the department and by the government. There were questions about placing the burden of proof and reversing the onus of proof. We were hearing from so many people impacted by the robodebt program that when parliament resumed in 2017 there just had to be a Senate inquiry into this appalling process and the appalling treatment of people.

There were nine hearings of that Senate inquiry across Australia. What will always stick with me is what we heard at every single hearing. We heard from or about people who were deeply affected by this deeply hurtful process and who often talked about the deterioration in their mental health upon receiving a letter. They talked of their anguish, their distress and their shame that people thought that they may be cheating. They felt that people were saying they were cheating. People on income support were deeply distressed, in tears, at the hearings. The community was outraged that the government could automate this debt recovery program.

Despite the evidence of the clear issues and problems with this flawed program, the government failed to implement most of the recommendations of the committee and particularly the key one, which was to suspend the program. If you think, if they'd acted then, of all the pain and suffering they would have stopped. Instead, the government ramped it up, pursuing people relentlessly, despite many problems, and ignoring any of the issues raised constantly by members of the community.

I'd like to just issue a trigger warning here for people who may be listening or reading this later. Since the Senate inquiry, many people have contacted, and continue to contact, my office—and I'm sure some of my colleagues too—and talk to us about the impact on their mental health. At least five families, and there have been other reports in the media, have told me they believe their family members who took their own lives are connected to receiving a robodebt. While correlation is not causation, I know many people in the community are deeply, deeply concerned that there is a link between being relentlessly pursued by this system for so-called debts—that, as it turns out, if they're income averaged, are illegal—and a deterioration in their mental health.

Robodebt is an attack on people on low incomes. We can't look at these things like robodebt in isolation from a system that has been attacking people on income support for years. There have been insidious attacks on people on income support, demonising people on income support and saying that young people are doing nothing and sitting on the couch. We have seen the jobactive program; Work for the Dole; the cashless debit card; the Community Development Program; ParentsNext; not increasing Newstart for over 25 years; chucking single parents off parenting payments and onto Newstart; making it harder to access the disability support pension; and the targeted compliance framework, which is leading to people just dropping out of the system. These are all part of a process designed to demonise people on income support. These savings measures chip away at the very fabric of our social security system and further entrench disadvantage and poverty. You smell a rat whenever you see the government saying that they're going to be saving money out of our social security net. These measures are designed to encourage people to drop off our income support system and make it harder to access it in the first place.

Robodebt has caused such extreme distress, trauma and hardship in the Australian community. I want to know how the government plan to rebuild confidence in the Centrelink system and rebuild the trust that they have lost with the Australian community because of this relentless attack and because robodebt has been so damaging to so many people. Matt Fisher is a research fellow in social determinants of health at Flinders University. He said that there is considerable evidence that the robodebt process impacts on the mental health of many people. He says:

In light of evidence on stress and its social causes, Centrelink's debt recovery program is highly likely to contribute to chronic stress among people already subject to socioeconomic disadvantage and/or other life demands. So it is likely to cause or exacerbate mental health problems and illness.

Too often, people are seen as somehow responsible for their mental ill health without any analysis of the social, economic and structural factors that contribute to their poor mental health. Living in persistent poverty and/or with constant financial insecurity can exhaust a person and lead to social isolation. For those suffering from poor mental health, the effects are even greater. Long-term poverty and financial difficulty can drive feelings associated with suicidality and undermine resilience, hope for the future and capacity to cope.

The community deserve answers to lots of questions they continue to have about robodebt. A royal commission is the only way that we can achieve justice for the victims of this illegal scheme and ensure that programs such as this never, ever eventuate again. The government is still withholding information about this program and is not refunding debts from before 2015. New polling from The Guardian shows significant support for a royal commission into this debacle. Fifty-three per cent of respondents agree there should be a royal commission. The poll found that 74 per cent of people said that the government should apologise, while 66 per cent said the victims should receive interest and damages on top of their refunds.

The community will not forget the people whose lives were irreversibly changed because of this program. They won't forget the harm that it has caused. They won't forget that the government subjected them to an illegal process. We will keep campaigning for justice and for a royal commission to ensure a full, independent review and forensic audit of this entire mess.