Tasmanian Liberal senator says debt recovery system ‘clearly unacceptable’ and refuses to rule out supporting Labor’s proposed Senate inquiry

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The Liberal senator Eric Abetz said Centrelink’s debt recovery system has “let down the Australian people”, while refusing to rule out support for Labor’s proposed Senate inquiry.

Sustained criticism over the system’s tendency to issue bogus debts to vulnerable Australians continues to place pressure on Liberal politicians in Tasmania.

Tasmania has the highest proportion of age pensioners, disability support pensioners and female sole parent pensioners in the nation, and welfare groups in the state have reported being inundated by requests for support.

Abetz, a conservative Tasmanian senator, has previously voiced his concerns with the system, as has fellow Liberal senator, Jonathon Duniam.

Abetz again spoke to ABC radio in Tasmania on Thursday, and was asked whether the government’s efforts to claw back welfare debts was a form of extortion.

He responded: “I’m not going to get into semantics, it is clearly unacceptable, and in my view that is where it is the application of a very sound policy and principle by Centrelink that has led to … people being put into circumstances that no government, no member of parliament would wish.”

Abetz repeatedly sought to deflect blame away from the human services minister, Alan Tudge, and on to Centrelink, saying the policy was sound, but had been poorly executed.

He said the flaws were in the automated data-matching process, and that Tudge could not be expected to get into the minutiae of the program.

“You want to limit the garbage that goes in [to the data-matching program], or the incorrect information, and that is where Centrelink, I think, has let down the Australian people,” Abetz said.

“The policy and the principle is right, to ensure that payments are correct, but when the computer program does make errors or doesn’t take into account, for example, business names has been an issue.”



Data matching, however, has been used for many years to detect discrepancies in income reported to Centrelink and the Australian Taxation Office.

The problems with the system appear to have been exacerbated by the removal of human oversight in July, and a dramatic increase in efforts to retrieve welfare debts.

Asked whether he would support Labor’s proposed Senate inquiry, Abetz said he would wait to see the details. He said he suspected it was a political ploy, and would be slow to form and begin hearing evidence.

Earlier this week, the Liberal premier of Tasmania, Will Hodgman, said he had raised concerns about the debt recovery system with the federal government.

Hodgman said the situation “needs to be fixed”.

“We’ve made that clear to the federal government, we don’t want to see Tasmanians disadvantaged, distressed in any way,” he said.

Labor is expected to move to establish a Senate inquiry next week. It will likely not need Liberal votes, given the Greens, One Nation and Nick Xenophon’s bloc of senators have already voiced their support.

Labor’s Linda Burney said Abetz’s comments stand in stark contrast to the government’s continued defence of the system.

“Even Liberal senators know there is a problem with the robo-debt system, if the minister won’t own up and fix these issues then the parliament will hold him to account,” Burney said.

“Alan Tudge is the minister overseeing Centrelink, if Centrelink is failing the Australian people then that responsibility lies at his feet.”

