One Nation and Nick Xenophon Team confirm they will support Labor and Greens in demanding parliamentary hearings

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Centrelink has warned staff that leaking information may constitute a criminal offence as a Senate inquiry into its controversial debt recovery system now appears all but certain.

One Nation and the Nick Xenophon Team confirmed to Guardian Australia that they would support an inquiry, easily giving the opposition and the Greens the numbers.

The automated system has been the subject of a series of damaging leaks since mid-December, when a compliance officer told Guardian Australia that only a fraction of the debts being issued were genuine.

On Tuesday the Department of Human Services people services manager, Adrian Hudson, sent an email to staff, reminding them of the consequences of improper leaking.



The memo did not directly reference the debt recovery system but warned public servants that they would not be protected if they leaked information externally.

Hudson told workers they would only be protected if they disclosed information in accordance with the Public Interests Disclosures Act. “Disclosures made under the public interest disclosure arrangements and ‘leaking’ information are not the same thing,” he said.

“Outside of the PID Act, an employee who makes a disclosure externally will not be protected and may in fact be committing a criminal offence or be in breach of the APS Code of Conduct.”

The Community and Public Sector Union has hit back at the department, saying it was trying to keep problems with the debt recovery system secret.



Its deputy national president, Lisa Newman, described the memo as an “extraordinary broadside at DHS staff” who were working on the frontline to deal with the government’s debt collection mess.

Newman said it was “especially galling” because the controversial system was the result of decisions by senior management and the federal government.

“DHS staff work hard to help ordinary Australians and are frustrated that the agency has been run into the ground and that service standards are totally unacceptable,” she said. “Rather than work with the CPSU and our members to fix these problems, DHS management is trying to keep its many problems secret.

“Adrian Hudson could be better spending his time than monstering staff with threats. Instead, perhaps he could spend some time listening to their suggestions on how to fix this situation so that people who’ve done nothing wrong stop being sent debt notices.”



Earlier on Wednesday, the auditor general rejected a request to investigate the Centrelink system.

The Australian National Audit Office said it did not want to duplicate the work of a separate investigation into the controversial system now being conducted by the commonwealth ombudsman, but would consider the issue again next financial year.

“I have consulted with the Ombudsman regarding the scope of his own motion investigation and do not intend to commence an audit while the Ombudsman’s investigation is underway,” the auditor general, Grant Hehir, wrote to Labor’s Linda Burney on Wednesday.

“Nonetheless, I will consider the inclusion of an audit in the development of my 2017-18 Audit Work Program.”

On the proposed Senate inquiry, a spokesman for One Nation senator Brian Burston confirmed that his party would offer its support.

The Nick Xenophon Team has been critical of the debt recovery system and Xenophon told Guardian Australia on Wednesday the party would support the inquiry.

Labor pushes for Senate inquiry into Centrelink robo-debt 'debacle' Read more

On Wednesday Anglicare became the latest organisation to call for the suspension of the system on Wednesday, joining unions, lawyers, disability advocates, welfare rights centres, the Australian Council of Social Services and other charities.

Anglicare Australia’s executive director, Kasy Chambers, said the system was a “step towards criminalisation of poverty and disadvantage”, because it shifted the onus on to individuals to prove they do not owe Centrelink a debt but made it difficult to respond appropriately through Centrelink’s overloaded systems.

“It is the failure to take the impact of these processes seriously and to treat everyone concerned with respect which concerns us,” Chambers said.



“Mistakes will be made in all complex systems, however it reflects particularly poorly on government ministers who reject out of hand evidence of the inaccuracy of this clumsy process and the distress it has caused,” she said.

Earlier on Wednesday Malcolm Turnbull defended Centrelink’s debt recovery system as “quite appropriate”. The prime minister said Centrelink was simply identifying discrepancies in reported income, as it had always done.

Centrelink crisis 'cataclysmic' says PM's former head of digital transformation Read more

“The letters that go out in the first instance are simply saying there is a discrepancy,” Turnbull said. “Your employer says you earn this and you say you earned that. Can you explain what that discrepancy is? That is entirely responsible and appropriate.

“Obviously it is important to make sure that the recipient gets the letter and you have seen the measures that the minister, Alan Tudge, has announced.”

But the data-matching process has been roundly criticised for its inaccuracies, which, with reduced human oversight, are causing vulnerable Australians to be wrongly issued with debts.

Protests are being planned across the country, including one outside the Centrelink office in Redfern, Sydney, on Wednesday afternoon. The National Union of Students plans further protests in major cities in March.

A small group of protesters also staged a sit-in at Tudge’s electorate office on Wednesday, handing him a debt notice for $300m – the amount the government has identified in recoverable debts.

Tudge was not at the office. The protesters played mock Centrelink hold music through loudspeakers, which included messages like: “At Centrelink we’re paranoid that you’re stealing from us. We can’t really prove it, so we’re going to steal from you.”

Police attended and the protesters agreed to leave.

In Tasmania, welfare and community service groups have joined together to create a disaster relief fund to help support those affected. The fund is designed to help those issued with debts to navigate Centrelink’s systems to lodge a dispute.



Labor and the Greens have both pledged to push for a Senate inquiry into the system, while the commonwealth ombudsman’s office has reportedly begun scheduling meetings with welfare groups.