There is a dark irony in the fact that many of those who have been hit by Centrelink's automated debt recovery debacle are on benefits in the first place because automation is dramatically changing the face of work, making it harder for many people to find secure, paid employment.

While the still-unfolding event is a political mess for the Turnbull government, and a personal tragedy for those caught up in it, it's important that we reflect on what it means for how our politics deals with welfare and work.

I see three important lessons to not just stop this awful situation from happening again, but to transform our outdated, punitive, compliance-based system of welfare into a 21st-century system to enable and encourage people to contribute to society and lead meaningful lives. Each of them points to the wisdom of seriously considering a completely new model: a universal basic income, paying everyone a subsistence wage, recouped through higher taxes on those most able to pay.

Firstly, the fact that many of the errors are due to inappropriately averaging occasional earnings over a year shows that governments don't understand how the nature of work is changing. While this averaging never would have been appropriate for people finding themselves in and out of work, in an "Uberised" world of zero-hour contracts and ever more precarious and insecure work, it makes no sense whatsoever.