Greens Spokesperson for Social Services, Senator Penny Allman-Payne, and Independent Member for Clark Andrew Wilkie MP, will today co-introduce a bill into the House of Representatives and the Senate to implement the recommendations of the Robodebt Royal Commission and put pressure on Labor to cease harmful debt recovery practices that are putting income support recipients at risk. In the House, the bill will be seconded by Helen Haines, Member for Indi.
Senator Allman-Payne and Mr Wilkie will announce the move together from Parliament House alongside key community advocates including Economic Justice Australia, who helped to draft the bill, and other sector advocates including Anti-Poverty Centre who have been calling for the changes to be implemented urgently.
Recommendations outstanding from the Royal Commission, and fulfilled by the Greens and crossbench bill include:
- Reinstating the 6 year limit on recovery of debts
- Establishing a duty of care for the Department of Social Services that prioritises the needs of social security recipients while administering the law,
- Restricting the kinds of decisions which can be made or automated without human oversight
- Better protections for people experiencing hardship from receiving compliance notices.
The move comes while more than 100,000 income support recipients await a decision from Labor on whether the Government will cancel more than $1 billion in unfair historical welfare debts that are currently being assessed for collection by the Department of Social Services.
Those debts, which pre-date 7 December 2020, were levied using the Department's ruthless and dubious methods of 'income apportionment', similar to Robodebt. A recent court ruled that the Government was able to reassess these debts using alternate methods, putting them back on the table.
The average age of the 'income apportionment' debts affected by this decision is 19 years old. To pursue these debts would effectively contravene the 6 year limit on debt recovery recommended by the Royal Commission, and previously agreed to by Labor. The Greens have previously written to Minister for Social Services Tanya Plibersek urging Labor to immediately waive those debts and put the Robodebt era behind them. The Department currently holds income support debts dating back to 1979.
In echoes of the Robodebt scandal, a recent Commonwealth Ombudsman's report found that around 1,000 people have had their support payments unlawfully cancelled by the Government's automated IT system between April 2022 and July 2024, despite warnings from external legal advisors.
As stated by Senator Penny Allman-Payne, Greens spokesperson for Social Services:
"I'm pleased to be joined by advocates and members of the crossbench in urging Labor to finally honour the victims of Robodebt and bring about these protections for people who rely on income support."
"More than two years on from the Royal Commission, and still Labor is treating vulnerable welfare recipients like criminals."
"It's just ridiculous that while 1 in 3 big corporations get away with paying no tax, Labor's time and effort goes into chasing ancient welfare debts dating back to the 1970s."
"If you're struggling to pay the rent or put food on the table, getting hit with a dodgy debt notice can be catastrophic."
"This legislation is ready to go, the Greens are urging Labor to walk the walk on Robodebt and end the cruelty in the welfare system for good."
