Independent Federal Member for Clark, Andrew Wilkie MP, will today introduce into Parliament a Private Members Bill that, if passed, would help to prevent a repeat of the Robodebt scandal. The Bill, which Economic Justice Australia (EJA) helped to draft, proposes long-overdue legislative reform, based on recommendations made by the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme. The Bill will be seconded in Parliament by Independent Federal Member for Indi Helen Haines MP, and will be presented concurrently before the Senate by Greens Senator for Queensland Penny Allman-Payne.
The introduction of the Bill in Parliament today will be followed by a press conference at 11am in the Mural Hall at Parliament House, where supporting MPs and sector advocates will provide a briefing to press.
“There is a false assumption that the Robodebt scandal is a thing of the past,” says EJA CEO Kate Allingham. “While the current Government has implemented several of the recommendations made by the Royal Commission, significant legislative change is still needed to protect Australians, who must currently rely on the goodwill of elected politicians and public servants. This is not a long-term reform strategy.
“In fact, similar harms continue to be perpetrated today, more quietly but with the same devastating effects. Robodebt drew public attention to what can happen when complex automated systems operate without sufficient human oversight, yet many thousands of Australians continue to be harmed by Government automated systems, as well as by other flaws within the social security law that were exposed many years ago and which remain unpatched.
“It is still quite common for a person to open the letterbox and find a completely unexpected letter from Centrelink, which they’ve had nothing to do with for years. It says something to the effect of, ‘Due to a change in family circumstances in 2013 you owe $15,000’. It brings chaos. The onus of proof is then on that person to work out what family circumstances the letter is referring to and to prove the debt is wrong. It’s time for the Government to close this chapter by committing to meaningful and reasonable reform.”
The proposed Bill will:
- Establish a positive duty on the Secretary of the Department of Social Services that emphasises and prioritises the needs of social security recipients when administering the social security law.
- Mandate periodic review and reporting on customer failures to comply with the social security law, with a view to identifying, correcting and preventing systemic flaws and issues.
- Restrict the kinds of decisions which can be automated or made without human oversight.
- Where decisions are automated, require the notice of decision to explain that automation has been used, and provide clear options for appeal.
- Modify administrative error waiver provisions so that debts resulting from errors (including data matching errors) are waived without the need to demonstrate ‘good faith’ or financial hardship.
- Modify special circumstance debt waiver provisions to increase access to waiver in circumstances of family and domestic violence, including coercive control and financial abuse.
- Reinstate the six-year limit on recovery of debts.
- Increase the period during which a person can claim Crisis Payment to 14 days, in line with contemporary understandings of trauma and abuse.
“When I first took up the post of CEO at EJA several years ago, I had thought that legislative reform resulting from Robodebt would be a first and obvious priority of Government, and that consulting on this would be an immediate priority for our sector. That proved not to be the case. We’d like to thank Members Wilkie, Haines and Allman-Payne for helping us keep the push for genuine reform on the agenda.”
Media is invited to join the press conference at 11am in Mural Hall at Parliament House, where there will be opportunities for interview from Members of Parliament and the Senate, and numerous sector representatives.
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Media contact: Kirsty Sier | 0435 075 085 | kirsty@ejaustralia.org.au