Govt rejects damning report on DHS' robodebt program
21 June 2017
IT News
The federal government has rejected a damning report into the Department of Human Services' 'robodebt' program that recommended it be immediately and indefinitely halted.
#notmydebt
Centrelink debt recovery system 'so flawed it was set up to fail', Senate committee says
21 June 2017
ABC News
A Labor- and Greens-dominated Senate committee has called on the Government to suspend Centrelink's controversial debt recovery program until it reconciles "a fundamental lack of procedural fairness".
The rule of law applies to government too
19 March 2017
Eureka Street
[T]he Australian government is itself falling well below adhering to the rule of law. I offer Centrelink #notmydebt as a case study.
Centrelink's robo-copout
23 February 2017
Latrobe Valley Express
Churchill resident Kate Zizys can empathise with Centrelink clients affected by 'robo-debt' orders for money they may not owe.
Having been in the Centrelink system on and off for most of her adult life, Ms Zizys has been forced to make inflated repayments in the past, despite going to appeal.
Q&A: Laughter as George Brandis says debt recovery notices can be fixed by contacting Centrelink
21 February 2017
ABC News
Attorney-General George Brandis has engaged in a heated discussion about offshore detention centres on Q&A, but it was the senator's suggestion wrongly issued debt recovery notices could be resolved by contacting Centrelink that drew one of the biggest audience responses.
The program had heard from Lyndsey Jackson, the creator of a website for people who had wrongly received letters as part of the debt recovery scheme, who said hundreds of people were suffering anxiety as they were forced to disprove the claims.
'Contact Centrelink': Attorney-General's non-solution into benefits confusion bemuses audience
21 February 2017
Yahoo7 News
As fed-up Australians demand answers from the seemingly unreachable Centrelink department, Attorney General George Brandis has bemused a television audience with his potential solution – “contact Centrelink”.
No need for Centrelink to prove your comments are adverse: they only need to think so before exposing you to media.
1 March 2017
No Place For Sheep
Further to yesterday’s post on the release to Fairfax media of private information by Human Services Minister Alan Tudge, the minister has justified his decision to take this action on the grounds that he is entitled by law to reveal personal details if the individual has made complaints in the media Centrelink considers false.
In other words, if you complain in the media about Centrelink, your private information can be released by that department in its own defence.
Privacy commissioner ‘making inquiries’ about Centrelink’s flexible privacy principles
28 February 2017
The Mandarin
Activists accuse the Department of Human Services of releasing private personal information about a woman in an effort to silence her criticism of its much-maligned debt recovery drive, but the department maintains it has done nothing wrong and the privacy commissioner is looking into the case.
No answer from Zed - local welfare recipients await action on Robo-Debt Program
31 January 2017
ACT Council of Social Services Inc
The ACT Council of Social Service Inc. (ACTCOSS) again today calls on Senator Zed Seselja to stand up for people in the ACT caught up in the Federal Government’s Centrelink Robo-Debt Recovery Program.
ACTCOSS Director, Susan Helyar, says that the government’s Debt Recovery Program is an unjust prosecution of our communities’ most vulnerable, who need support from local MPs.
Centrelink and Other Public Service Workers to Take Industrial Action
7 February 2017
ProBono Australia
Staff in the Department of Human Services including Centrelink workers are planning six days of rolling strikes over a stalled enterprise bargaining process and the auto-debt recovery program, according to the Community and Public Sector Union.
The union said Centrelink, Medicare and child support workers would strike and take other forms of industrial action at various times and various locations starting on 13 February.
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