The independent member for Indi, Helen Haines, seconds Andrew Wilkie’s bill:

This bill represents unfinished business when it comes to Robo debt, more than two years after the final report from the robodebt Royal Commission was handed down, it implements or complements some of the outstanding recommendation from the rec from the Royal Commission’s final report.

It sets out new positive duties that require the government to emphasize and prioritize the needs of Social Security recipients when administering Social Security law and designing systems and policies.

It mandates human oversight of debts raised above $2,000 before the decisions come into effect, or decisions which would cause the cancelation of a payment or benefit. It also mandates notifying recipients if a debt has been raised against them as a result of ultimate automation.

It places a six year time limit on debt recovery actions, among other measures.

Robodebt cannot be allowed to be forgotten or to be repeated. We cannot allow the most vulnerable in our community to come up against the might of the government of automated systems without compassion or compromise.

Yet I worry bills like this and the ethos behind them are more needed than ever.

The Commonwealth ombudsman found this month that 964 jobseeker recipients had their social security payments unlawfully terminated between April 2022 and July 2024 due to it glitches in the targeted compliance framework, which automatically canceled payments without oversight.

We can see automated automation without oversight, is still a barrier to vulnerable Australians getting the help they need.

It’s clear we have a long way to go before the lessons of Robodebt are learned and implemented. We need a true turnaround in attitudes to guard against the demonisation of welfare recipients.