Hey, you know that genuinely gross leak of a Centrelink claimant’s private information to a journalist? The leak that was okayed by the office of Human Services Minister Alan Tudge, in order to “correct the record” / win a PR battle with the blogger Andie Fox?

Welp, in an unguarded moment on The Project, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce just flat-out admitted that certain welfare recipients shouldn’t rely on Centrelink to keep their sensitive details under wraps.

After discussing a new push for laws which would grant the Federal Government the ability to publicly share veterans’ information to counter their negative claims, The Project’s hosts pushed Joyce on the Centrelink issue.

Joyce, obviously unprepared for that line of inquiry, fumbled out an assertion that legal frameworks would prevent personal information from being illegally shared. (FWIW, Tudge’s office has indicated it’ll use a previously untested legal justification for its actions, should that issue make it to court.)

Then, to the obvious surprise of host Waleed Aly, Joyce said “if you want to keep your information absolutely private, don’t go and get the dole whilst you’ve also got a job.”



Read: Joyce just admitted that welfare recipients shouldn’t take the privacy of their information for granted, especially if they make public assertions about their circumstances which the Department of Human Services disagrees with.

A tense exchange followed as Joyce insisted he wasn’t briefed on the contents of tonight’s chat. The hosts maintained it was, and even name-dropped his media contact, only for a visibly agitated Joyce to turn away from the camera.

Catch the entire exchange below:

Source and photo: The Project / Twitter.