Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will now deal with the Oversight Legislation Amendment (Robodebt Royal Commission Response and Other Measures) Bill 2024. I understand the minister has a document to table.

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I table an addendum to the explanatory memorandum relating to the Oversight Legislation Amendment (Robodebt Royal Commission Response and Other Measures) Bill 2024. The addendum responds to matters raised by the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will now deal with the second reading amendment circulated by the Australian Greens. The question is that the Australian Greens' amendment on sheet 3252 be agreed to.

Australian Greens' circulated amendment—

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate:

(a) notes that:

(i) Robodebt was the worst failure of public administration in Australian history, raising an estimated $1.73 billion of illegitimate debts from over 430,000 vulnerable Australians,

(ii) there is widespread community outrage due to a lack of accountability and insufficient findings from completed investigations; and

(iii) the Robodebt scheme flourished because of a political and media culture that stigmatises income support recipients, and failures in public sector leadership and culture in key departments; and

(b) calls on the Albanese Government to:

(i) implement all 57 recommendations of the Robodebt Royal Commission in full to ensure that Robodebt can never happen again,

(ii) immediately release the confidential additional chapter of the Robodebt Royal Commission report,

(iii) provide the Parliament with an update regarding the status of any civil or criminal referrals made in connection with Robodebt,

(iv) reinstate the six-year limitation on debt recovery as a matter of urgency,

(v) abolish the punitive Work for the Dole and the Targeted Compliance Framework, that have propagated a culture of punishing income support recipients; and

(vi) ensure that the lessons for public sector leadership, management, culture and policy are learned by incorporating study of this failed chapter across public sector leadership education and development training".