Labor and the Greens have proposed a wide-ranging Senate inquiry into the Centrelink debt scandal, which would examine how the system went “so dismally wrong at the expense of struggling Australians”.

The Labor senator Doug Cameron and the Greens senator Rachel Siewert gave notice of their proposed inquiry to the Senate on Tuesday afternoon and it is likely to pass a vote on Wednesday, with One Nation and the Nick Xenophon Team previously expressing support.

The proposed terms of reference give the inquiry until May to report on a range of issues, including the impact of the system on vulnerable Australians, the scale of errors being made, the capacity of Centrelink’s phone, online and physical offices to deal with surges of demand, and the adequacy of complaint and review processes.

It will be asked to scrutinise the process of imperfect data-matching that underpins the debt recovery system, which had human oversight largely removed from July.

“In an attempt to claw back money from struggling Australians accessing our social safety net, the government has caused a monumental mess that they refuse to back away from,” Siewert said. “This is just the tip of the iceberg as we know so many people are yet to receive the debt notice, it’s only going to get worse.”

Labor’s Linda Burney sought to increase pressure on the government during question time on Tuesday, citing one case in which she said a woman was wrongly issued a $36,000 debt.

The human services minister, Alan Tudge, said the government had already announced changes to the system, designed to improve its fairness to welfare recipients.

“But we also want to be fair to the taxpayer, and that’s exactly why we have this system in the first place,” Tudge said. “The reason ... that we have to do this important work is because it’s the unfortunate reality that some people abuse the system while many others inadvertently do not update their income.”

Lawyers continue to examine the legality of Centrelink’s actions, while unions, welfare groups and the progressive political group GetUp continue campaigns to have the system shut down.

GetUp set up a website to allow individuals to simultaneously dispute wrongly issued debts, submit freedom of information requests and contact Coalition ministers about their case.

The group’s national director, Paul Oosting, said 1,000 people had now used the tool. Oosting said the government was deliberately bullying vulnerable Australians into paying false debts.

“It’s disgraceful. They’re shaking down pensioners, single parents, and people with disabilities,” Oosting said. “The whole process has been designed to harass and intimidate people so they just pay the false debts and shut up.”

Earlier on Tuesday, the independent MP Andrew Wilkie attempted to stall business in the house while calling for an immediate shutdown of the system.



Wilkie, who first raised concerns about the system in early December, said the debt recovery scheme was continuing to have a severe emotional and financial impact on vulnerable Australians. He said he believed 4,000 incorrect debts were being raised each week.

Wilkie asked Tudge to convene a roundtable to design a fairer, more humane system of debt detection and recovery.



“This can’t be dealt with next week or next month or next year, it must be dealt with today,” he said.

Tudge said the practice of data matching between Centrelink records and other government agencies had been used since 1990.



He said individuals were given three chances to dispute the debt, either by asking the department for a reassessment, or through the administrative appeals tribunal.

The Greens MP Adam Bandt spoke in support of Wilkie’s motion. He said dozens of voters had also contacted him complaining about the unfairness of the system.



“It is absolute cowardice to turn the machinery of government onto those who are unable to defend themselves,” Bandt said.

The motion was defeated.