On private members’ bills that might actually make a difference, independent MP Andrew Wilkie has announced he will be introducing legislation to address elements of the Robodebt Royal Commission, to ensure it doesn’t happen again:

The Bill proposes higher standards and duties which must be adhered to in the provision of social security services to ensure policies and processes are designed and administered with an emphasis on service, rather than punishment. It also introduces changes to the social security law relating to oversight of automated decision making, as well as more compassionate debt recovery and collection practices, and compliance activities.

Which is not just the right thing to do, it is legally necessary. As the Antipoverty Centre reported last week:

Late yesterday the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations quietly released an independent report triggered in 2024 by revelations of unlawful Centrelink payment cancellations. This comes just a week after the Commonwealth Ombudsman released the first report of his investigation into administration of the compulsory activities known as “mutual” obligations.

There was also a second Deloitte report in the same area, which the AFR’s Paul Karp reported was ‘littered with citation errors’. That report claimed there were not grounds to stop the use of mutual obligation penalties, which the Antipoverty Centre has argued is incoherent, given the penalties are unlawful.

Wilkie says it is time to legislate to ensure that the government responds before even more harm is done:

Robodebt was a catastrophic failure of government administration that destroyed the lives of thousands of Australians,” Mr Wilkie said in a statement.

“It’s been two years since the Royal Commission and, shamefully, we are yet to see any meaningful legislative change from this Federal Government. Well, I’ve now done the work for them, and so I urge them to come to the table on these legislative reforms to ensure such catastrophic failures of social services administration can never occur again.”